Strength of Cedars

Instant — Arcane

Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of lands you control.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (7)

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Kids love Ghalta

2 years ago

With the teaching intention in mind, might I suggest Strength of Cedars? The arcane part might be confusing, but can be left aside easily. It's a good lesson regarding +X effects and also is an instant speed combat trick.

poorpinkus on How to Have Fun in EDH - Phelddagrif Surprise

5 years ago

Fr0sty11 So first of all, I'd like to mention that I really haven't done much with this decklist for a couple years. I pretty much bought every card in this deck with a budget of under $5, but the meta seems to have changed enough to increase the price of some cards.

I haven't been playing the deck recently because I've moved on to some other decks that I enjoy, but from my previous experiences, I've found that this archetype can morph to more playgroups than you'd think, you just need to think about the long game. That being said, I think this deck definitely fits in the 60-75% range in terms of meta. Anyways, let me clear some things up:

• The deck can play to multiple different archetypes: Control, Group Hug, Mill and Pillow Fort are the biggest ones. A big thing to keep in mind with this is that depending on your specific playgroup, you'll probably want to tune the deck to suit the problems that you are facing. Personally I don't play against many enchantment wipes. Have problems with board wipes? Try tossing in Faith's Reward or other redundancies such as ways to give your stuff indestructible. Counterspells also work.

• Your opponents will remember your past games, and they will try to avoid past mistakes. A big thing about this deck is attitude. If you come in saying "Hey I'm gonna mill y'all", people are going to be wary of your generosity in letting them draw cards for example. They might also take your offerings as threats, undermining your biggest way to protect yourself. In general, you HAVE to run this deck as a group hug deck, and swing the game into your favour once the game is close to an end and you can get people to root for you. The best way to get to this win condition by playing as a group hug deck is to swap in cards that subtly work well for you while benefitting everyone as a whole. A good example of this is Collective Voyage, which gives everyone lands, but it also might get you a lethal Strength of Cedars or enough mana for an insta-mill.

• An addition to the previous point, if you want to win multiple games in a row, you're going to need to find a different angle each time, otherwise you're going to attract unnecessary attention; If, for example, you won one game by pumping up Walking Archive, people are going to be afraid if you play that card again, so consider trying to look for counterspells and play something like Forced Fruition instead on your next game, allowing you to lead your opponents into a trap, or go a completely different angle, either winning through politics or again playing an angle like Strength of Cedars.

• Don't feel bad if you have a losing streak, the deck is mainly focused around making the game wacky, and other people aren't going to have fun if you're winning too much. While winning is the goal, it's not what you should exactly aim for for the majority of the game, since I really made this deck just to see what crazy shenanigans could happen.

• My playgroup tended to play nice with politics when I made this deck, but if your playgroup is different, you may want to add more ways to discourage your opponents from attacking you. Caltrops is a good example, or any other pillow fort card (I tried to avoid these), and if you find that there is just too much in play, try something like Portcullis instead.

• There are really no "necessary" cards. The point of the deck is redundancy, so if something is out of your budget range it's totally fine not to include it. Try looking at other people's suggestions, the maybeboard, or other decklists if you'd like more inspiration, but usually the best thing to do is look at the problems that you are seeing and put some patches on those holes.

• I was never able to test this deck against combo, mainly just goodstuff decks. If you're having trouble with combo, try something like Torpor Orb, Suppression Field, Grafdigger's Cage or just more counterspells. The weirdest thing to balance in this deck is contingency plans, so I had to go with purely what worked for me.

• Opposing control decks are your friend, just don't make yourself look like a target to them. Usually they will attract a lot of hate, so you can let them counter the scary stuff while taking hits, and once they inevitably die, you may have enough resources to assemble a wincon.

• Have other decks to play, because people will definitely get tired of having you throw too many wrenches into their plans. The deck is meant to be a fun thing that you play every once in a while, so too much of it can be a bit annoying to opponents.

• Finally, I'd like to mention that with this deck you REALLY need to know when to hold things back. This deck requires a lot of knowledge of your opponents' decks as well as a lot of patience, so if you're just playing your hand, you will most likely attract too much attention. If you notice that you are attracting too much aggro, take a step back and reassess how you've affected your opponents. You may find that if you just waited for an extra turn, you could have won rather than getting your stuff removed.

Anyways, this was just a lot of random thoughts, but I hope it helps! I really believe in this deck, but I definitely need to revise some things now that I've made more control decks and, well, played more commander. This was the first deck that I've ever purchased for EDH, so it definitely holds a special place for me, and I hope that it ends up working out for you! I'll see if I can find some budget options later, but for now I need to sleep...

Jamminmagician on Sssneaky Snakes slitherin

6 years ago

Someone call a vet, these pythons are SICK! Flexes.

I sense that this deck tries to go wide, but with the unblock+buff on your commander, and the infect sub-theme sprinkled throughout, maybe you should throw in some big pump spells/voltron cards to make a sneaky little snek huge

Might of Oaks, Primal Bellow, or Strength of Cedars would all help a snek to flex on unsuspecting foolsss

rguilbault on

7 years ago

Keen Sense is cheaper than Snake Umbra. Mask of Memory would stick around longer than either (should a dude die) and you can use something like Creeping Renaissance to get all the discarded cards back (if that's a concern).

Elder Pine of Jukai could be interesting if you had more spirits or arcane spells (looks like you have 3 total so probably not a great fit). There could be some other spirits or arcane spells worth swapping in...a couple that seem kinda cool or would otherwise fit your theme: Arashi, the Sky Asunder, Carven Caryatid, Eidolon of Blossoms, Forked-Branch Garami, Haru-Onna, Iname, Life Aspect, Nourishing Shoal, Permeating Mass, Primordial Sage, Rending Vines, Strength of Cedars, Wear Away. Not trying to change up the vibe, just saying...

Other straight up draw cards to consider: Abundant Growth, Elemental Bond, Fecundity, Fa'adiyah Seer, Fruit of the First Tree, Garruk's Packleader, Glimpse of Nature, Hunter's Insight, Hunter's Prowess, Kavu Lair, Krosan Tusker (just to cycle it), Life's Legacy, Nature's Resurgence, Nissa's Revelation, Ohran Viper, Sylvan Library, Zendikar Resurgent.

Viridian Revel could be interesting given you seem to like artifact hate. And then there are all the Enchantresses, if you want to start loading up on enchantments, e.g. Verduran Enchantress. I think there are 4-5 available, which could become some serious card draw off simple cantrips like Abundant Growth.

This looks like a fun deck...might try my hand at a build if I have enough of the cards ;-)

DaringApprentice on Isao, Budget Bushi(<15$)

7 years ago

If you want more suggestions, here are some more:

Since you don't have too many Arcane cards in general, I'd recommend taking out all of them and replacing them with cards that work better in general.

To replace Strength of Cedars, you could use Blanchwood Armor.

To replace Kodama's Might, you could use Giant Growth or Sylvan Might.

To replace Wear Away, there are a lot of options, but some include Fade into Antiquity, Return to the Earth, Deglamer/Unravel the Aether, Reclamation Sage, Consign to Dust, and Seal of Primordium.

Also, since you aren't running too many Auras, you could replace Gatherer of Graces with Yavimaya Enchantress, whose ability counts all enchantments, not just those that you control.

MagmaArmor0 on Hippo Almighty

7 years ago

Granted, my Group Hug deck is Zedruu the Greathearted, so that might flavor this a bit, but...You might want a few more lands, and definitely are going to want things that increase your maximum hand size. Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel seem great for this, as does Kruphix, God of Horizons.

Your goal is to come in second. Never look like the biggest threat, make sure people come to deal with you "last." Then make sure you have counterspells in hand, and they've already been whittled down by your opponents. If an opponent would be eliminated and you can save them, do it. Play your opponents off each other, then when they're all bruised and battered, let one finish the others off. Now it's just you and your 10 card hand (with counterspells galore) against the 1 card they haven't played yet (since they've been going all out to kill your opponents.) Helix Pinnacle would actually work hilariously as a win con alongside Kruphix.

I would cut Leyline of Lifeforce since you'll want to counter things yourself. Wheel and Deal seems like it's a little too good for your opponents--you're still trying to win yourself, after all. Strength of Cedars probably wants to be Mirror Entity. If you're looking for cute combat tricks on opponents' creatures, maybe Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers?

poorpinkus on Phelddagrif win cons?

8 years ago

Might of Oaks/Strength of Cedars works wonders when you and everyone else has tons of lands, Vow of Duty, Vow of Flight and Vow of Wildness can make the griff fairly big, Walking Archive/Blue Sun's Zenith/Skyscribing/Prosperity/Minds Aglow + lots of mana will mill everyone (with cards like Elixir of Immortality to prevent you from losing), and Jushi Apprentice is also a great win con, although people will see that one coming so keep that in mind