Vow of Lightning

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

Enchanted creature gets +2/+2, has first strike, and can't attack you or a planeswalker you control.

Discussion (41)

multimedia on Marchesa, Queen At Arms

3 weeks ago

Hey, I see why you're confused if you're going in the right direction because your deck is kind of all over the place. There's lots of good cards here, but I think you can reduce the themes and streamline the strategies.

Consider increasing the pillowfort theme? Increasing the token theme? Decreasing the combat themes (first strike), equipment theme and politics themes? In my opinion combining pillowfort and token strategies are the only themes you really need because both these themes require a lot of setup and they both strengthen each other. If you add other themes to these two all they will do is disrupt the ability to pillowfort.

Consider Luminarch Ascension ? It's a good win condition mana sink for pillowfort and token strategies. With three opponents it can activate fast. Windborn Muse is an upgrade for Baird, Steward of Argive . Consider Aura of Silence ? It's good opponent disruption making it more difficult for them to cast mana efficient artifacts and enchantments.

Other than Sun Titan you're not playing reanimation strategies. Consider Rest in Peace or Containment Priest ? Peace is more expensive price, but it affects everything. Consider Knight of the White Orchid ? It's a great card for land ramp in white especially since you're playing Plains Shock lands and Mistveil.

Depending on the budget of cards you want to add, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite , Ethersworn Canonist , Twilight Prophet and Elspeth, Sun's Champion are good here, but they're all expensive price. Elesh or Elspeth are an upgrade for Teysa. Both Elesh and Elspeth are very good finishers for tokens. Canonist shuts down some decks and Prophet in combination with a token strategy, getting the city's blessing fast, can give you lots of value.

Consider Kher Keep ? A repeatable way to make tokens that's a land; make a blocker at instant speed. Bitterblossom or the less expensive price, but much worse Dreadhorde Invasion are other good repeatable sources of token. Ophiomancer can be a repeatable source at each upkeep of a token that has deathtouch making it a good blocker on each of your opponent's turns.

Wrath of God as well Day of Judgment or the more expensive price Damnation or Toxic Deluge are cards to consider adding. Board wipes are good with pillowfort and the token strategies since tokens are being made from repeatable sources. Cursed Totem or the more expensive price Linvala, Keeper of Silence is opponent creature disruption since you're not relying on your creatures activated abilities only their ETB or static abilities.

---

Cards to consider cutting:

• Baird, Steward of Argive
• Vow of Duty
• Vow of Lightning
• Crown of Doom
• Curse of Opulence
• Disrupt Decorum
• Sorin, Grim Nemesis
• Duelist's Heritage
• Archetype of Courage
• Disciple of Bolas
• Protector of the Crown
• Hammer of Nazahn
• Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• Torment of Hailfire
• Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

If you like some of these suggestions I offer more advice about why I think these cards can be cut. Good luck with your deck.

Joe_Ken_ on MagicalHacker - List of All Type A Pillow Fort

1 month ago

I would argue the vow cycle of cards should be on here like Vow of Lightning keeps the most dangerous creature from going after you and makes it go after opponets.

PhotogenicParasympathetic on I did it. I finally ...

2 months ago

Today, I lived the dream. I put a Vow of Lightning on Ruhan of the Fomori . He finally agreed to my terms.

mrdehring on Disrupt Parity w/ Budget suggestions

4 months ago

I like the build and have a similar deck. A few thoughts on your strategy that might be based on your playgroup.

I find that cards like Bitter Feud lead to both of those players attacking me.

Slumbering Dragon and Nesting Dragon as well as the vow cycle (e.g. Vow of Lightning ) do a great job of sending people somewhere else.

I noticed Dolmen Gate in the maybeboard, I find that card does a lot of work for me especially since I have to attack as well.

You are using a lot of slots to make your opponents attack, but your commander does that already. I usually wait until I'm ready to play defense and then I cast Thantis, the Warweaver . If I start getting into trouble I let it die so I can reestablish my board before making everyone attack. You may be able to cut a few of these from the main.

I like the Sight of the Scalelords ; I may add that to my list. I use Akroma's Memorial for vigilance. It is a bit more expensive, but it adds a finisher to the deck.

Glaciercold on Gorgeous Girls Deck

5 months ago

From commander precons: Vow of Flight , Vow of Malice , Vow of Lightning , Curse of Predation , Curse of the Forsaken , Order of Succession , Arachnogenesis , Dulcet Sirens , Ophiomancer , Portal Mage , Angelic Field Marshal , Kaalia of the Vast , Titania, Protector of Argoth , Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury , Meren of Clan Nel Toth , Breya, Etherium Shaper , Saheeli, the Gifted

Guviwex on Xantcha wish your girlfriend was hot like me

10 months ago

Great list so far. Here are you my suggestions:

I'd swap out the infect cards for an evasion suite. Infect is great on paper, but you don't get to direct where it's going. Thus, it comes with #1 negative (painting a large target on yourself that says: 'kill me now') without the #1 benefit (eliminating your greatest threat in a turn or two). I think you'll do better flying lower on the radar. Stick the five commander damage and be happy. Some combination of Corrupting Licid, Sleeper's Guile, Dauthi Embrace, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, and Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep should do the trick. Add in a Nim Deathmantle to keep Xantcha on the field indefinitely.

Total War seems particularly punishing. As does Errantry. I wouldn't run many Creature Auras, but Errantry locks down a board state and shortens the commander damage clock to 3 hits.

War's Toll should incentivize others to use Xantcha as a mana sink on their own turn. Which is exactly what you want.

Unnerve is both a 10/10 flavor win, and another incentive for others to activate Xantcha's draw ability. Also Arterial Flow and Words of Waste come to mind.

Glacial Chasm is good protection. Sit back and watch the world burn.

Alhammarret's Archive seems great w/Xantcha's ability, although it is quite slow. Maybe get a feel for how your opponents are dealing with Xantcha first. If you get to sit around a lot, slot this in.

I'd switch out some of your Xantcha-killing board wipes for Languish and Wildfire. Xantcha on turn three, ramp into Wildfire on turn 4-5? Yikes.

If you find that Xantcha is eating removal often, Fury Storm seems like a good add. Playing Xantcha three times, and quintupling an x=6 Exsanguinate to drain the table for 30 sounds like a positively delightful way to spend 10 mana. Works with that Profane Command in your Maybeboard as well.

Speaking of mana, you probably want Cabal Stronghold and Neheb, the Eternal in here.

Maybe Mana Geyser for a game ending drain from Xantcha or Exsanguinate-- although that might be too cute. Works great with War's Toll.

Howl from Beyond and Torment of Hailfire are also good ways to finish people off.

--

As far as what to swap out:

Spiteful Visions isn't asymmetrical enough. You're probably going to be using Xantcha's ability often enough to make this hurt.

Exquisite Blood isn't really working within your game plan. You're using it as a defensive option here. I think there are better options (Chasm, for example).

Blood Sun works against you too much.

Polluted Bonds could probably be swapped out for something. I get that your opponents will be drawing more, but if feels like 5 mana good stuff.

I think War Cadence could be swappped out for any of the evasion enchantments suggested above. Dauthi Embrace probably.

Vow of Lightning and Vow of Malice should probably also be swapped out for more solid evasion.

Rite of the Raging Storm might also be too cute, but it's hard to judge.

--

Overall, this is a really good list. Xantcha is a cool card and it's fun to see how many niche interactions she enables. Good luck with it!

DiesToDiscard on Swole Survivors, a Varchild Deck

10 months ago

Nice i really like this deck, take a look at

Vow of Lightning

Combat Celebrant

Rite of the Raging Storm

Grand Melee

Crown of Doom

Angel's Trumpet

i will be monitoring this deck!

pokepower116 on 8x8 Xantcha

10 months ago

Hey! Thanks for the mention :)

Love the idea! In terms of pure win percentage, my deck definitely isn't the right way to go about things and I feel that a more defensive pillowfort strategy like you mentioned would net you much more wins.

While red/black aren't the best pillowfort colors in the traditional sense, they have a few cards that slow or disincentivize attackers; not to mention there are a few land and artifact cards that help too. No Mercy, Dread, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Maze of Ith, Mystifying Maze, Spires of Orazca (flipped from Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip), Uphill Battle, Glacial Crevasses, Vow of Malice, Vow of Lightning, and Crawlspace just to name a few. Since most of the pillowfort cards are in white, another route could be playing a card like Queen Marchesa and running Xantcha in the 99.

I think the 8x8 theory is solid for most of these categories! I feel that the player controlling Xantcha dying is a rare enough occurrence (she'll probably get destroyed or another player could get taken out before them) that you might not need a full 8 slots dedicated to sacrificing her. If this does happen, you could always use your single-target removal on her and run a bit more of it. It's not ideal, but might save you from situations where you have a Viscera Seer or Ashnod's Altar and nothing to sacrifice with it.

Same goes with the politics and memes. Depending on your definition of memes, they could have a lot of overlap there too so you might not need to dedicate 16 slots in your deck to both of those (like Curse of Opulence, Sower of Discord, or Disrupt Decorum).

Overall I think you're on the right track and I can't wait to see what you end up with!