Wand of Vertebrae

Artifact

: Put the top card of your library into your graveyard.

, , Exile Wand of Vertebrae: Shuffle up to five target cards from your graveyard into your library.

Discussion (13)

BraxTune on Bolt Heavy

3 weeks ago

Hello my fellow planeswalkers! So if you have been following my deck closely you will see that I made a few changes to the main deck when I added the new sideboard. As the nature of the online meta has changed so have I also had to evolve.

The easiest change to make was to relocate Lava Coil to the sideboard. Against creatureless decks it would just end up being a very dead card in the hand. I could use it against my own creatures to gain a counter on Runaway Steam-Kin but that typically is not a worthy trade. Heck of a useful card though. So I upped the count to 4x and swap them in pretty regularly.

The next change was to my mana base. I popped out one Mountain and traded in a Field of Ruin . I had been messing around with Wand of Vertebrae and just never achieved a decent feel for it being functional or actually doing the job I was asking of it. Typically you would use it to help clear dead cards from the top of your library while Experimental Frenzy is active and to help stack your deck with more 'action'. I just never found it to be reliable with my setup. Perhaps it works well for other players but they arent me and I am rather discerning. The Field allows me to blow up whatever land I despise on my opponent's side, thin my own deck, shuffle my library, and bring an untapped mountain on to the field. Just... Heckin yes. Obviously with only one in the whole deck, your chances of reaching it are slim, but thats sort of the point. It doesnt distract from your overall strategy but allows for nice maneuvering when you find it.

With the extra space I had left, I installed an extra 'frenzy' and another Risk Factor . The latter just being the biggest mindgame card of the deck. Every choice is the wrong one. Blue players know what I am talking about... Lol.

Well thank you for reading my update blurb. I hope to see some of you out there rocking your own versions of this beasty. It pulled me all the way thru the Gold tiers on arena and was so good I actually went out and put this deck together on paper as well!

Learning to pilot this one well can definitly help you develop as a player. Great for newbs and pros alike!

Kjartan on Shapeshifter Surveil Deck

1 month ago

Cutting you deck down to 60 cards would be a huge improvement. You have a lot of underpowered cards, so cutting your deck down to minimum size would make you get to your best cards more consitantly.

Rescue could go. With this few (good) etb triggers, it's not going to be that impactful, and you don't want to bounce your artifacts. (Or it could just become an Unsummon if you got one)

Ceremonious Rejection Seems very specific, but you do surveil a lot, and the card is pretty good, so it may be fine, but I'm not loving it. (Or is it a meta thing?)

Realmwright doesn't seem too useful. I guess it can help you cast Dread Shade, but that's pretty niche.

Amulet of Safekeeping also seems a tad too specific to be good, unless it's a meta thing, (but again, surveil help you get rid of it easily).

Wand of Vertebrae Is probably too RNG to be any good.

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With the boosters you've opened, I'm willing to bet you've got some Dimir Guildgates or even Watery Graves, and a couple fixers would be a great addition to the mana base.

Also, I'm sure you've got some Discovery / Dispersal, which is one of the greatest survel cards.

Osbert on Muldrotha Infinite Recursion

1 month ago

I see a lot of huge mana cards and only 7 sources of ramp, and not even abusable ramp....

Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Song of Freyalise, Coiling Oracle, Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip, World Shaper, Reclamation Sage all becomes considerably more powerful when you can reuse their body via Skullclamp, Birthing Pod, Grave Pact, Ashnod's Altar, or Phyrexian Altar and have the upside of being reused from grave if they are thrown off for an effect or destroyed for being too powerful. Also note that most of those effects are elf based and thus an elf tribal game plan is very potent.

If you don't like mana dorks then at least don't pay full price for your big creatures. Cheat them into play with Reanimate Dead, Necromancy, Journey to Eternity  ^Flip's flip side, etc.

Claws of Gix also can help eat any permanent you want. Extra spicy when combined with your commander and Winter Orb to basically lock your opponents out of playing. Might be too spicy but is a consideration. If you want more of the stax effects why not include Plaguecrafter, Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Smokestack, and a few other similar effects to the list of cards. Don't be afraid to run a Mimic Vat also and just stick one of these edict creatures under it allowing for instant speed interaction.

Find a few more ways to fuel your grave. Perpetual Timepiece works great but Wand of Vertebrae is quite weak. Search for Azcanta  ^Flip, Life from the Loam, Altar of Dementia, Greater Good, Grisly Salvage, Scapeshift, and anything with dredge you want to stick in all fuel your grave while serving dual purposes of drawing cards or sacrificing your permanents.

Play cards that play into your game plan of fueling graveyard plays. Elephant Grass and Mystic Remora are good options as ignoring the cumulative upkeep makes them very powerful. The Gitrog Monster is a fantastic ramp and draw engine.

Lastly, play redundancy. Your opponents are going to know your game plan and are not going to want you to have Muldrotha every turn. Crucible of Worlds & Ramunap Excavator for land recursion and ramp via fetchlands. Glissa, the Traitor is niche but can be a solid artifact recursion engine when paired with Grave Pact effects. Archaeomancer & Spellseeker are super abusable (and cost less mana than Scribe of the Mindful.)

Quadsimotto on Mono Black Lich artifacts

2 months ago

It lost 1-2. The third game was really close. Game one i got stalled on turn two and never saw another land. Yours trounced mine with a lich and removal. Game two was semi close but I decked you out with two drowned secrets a glimpse and the next turn a glimpse that was used out of the GY with a mission briefing. Game three saw removal going both ways. Id get a lich out on your side and then use removal from mine to take it out. Id get out a spybug on my side only to have it killed by a chupa, it went back and forth. One lonely little drowned secrets and some glimpses got me through again. Me with 9 life remaining you with one card left and only able to swing in for 7. So decked twice. Perhaps some Wand of Vertebrae in the sideboard? Or something along the lines of recursion.

Hexaflexagon on goblin frenzy!

2 months ago

I agree with BoyToy here. You need some type of removal. Have you tried replacing the Wand of Vertebrae you have for Lava Coil? You could also try splashing White for removal such as Conclave Tribunal and Ixalan's Binding and lord effects such as Radiant Destiny.

hkhssweiss on Gravy Tank

2 months ago

AjanisLastDan

Yes, it dodges the commander tax and not only that you can cast it from the grave when Muldrotha is in play avoiding to pay the full cost of the creature, while casting a cheaper creature option as well :P

Personally I feel Vraska, Relic Seeker or Vraska, Scheming Gorgon is a bit too slow and for their abilities they don't do much for the cost. Wand of Vertebrae could also be switched out for Codex Shredder as you can target opponents library as well. Gleaming Barrier can be cut as well to make room for more spells.

Hope that helps!

Natalbee on Dead Cells

3 months ago

multimedia: That's a good point. In all the games I've played, I just see Chamber Sentry sitting there in the graveyard when I could be utilizing it. A 5/5 for 5 isn't too bad, especially when it can tap for 5 the next turn and deal 5 damage. Even for 0, it's a repeatable Sai, Master Thopterist and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle trigger.

I cut the two Navigator's Compass and and a Lazav, the Multifarious and put in two Chromatic Lantern and a Wand of Vertebrae. Lazav helped me out one time, but ultimately he's a 1/3 that can be turned into a 1/1 flyer or a 0/4 blocker.

Thanks for the help!

Natalbee on Dead Cells

3 months ago

Legendary_penguin_of_death: That's a good point... I put in two Slaughter the Strongs and I'll try it out tomorrow. I just played one more game with the Plaguecrafters, and it cleared their board of Knights and almost removed their hand before they conceded. I updated the decklist I'm using.

Wand of Vertebrae was only good if I was trying to find the last of my combo pieces. I replaced them with Navigator's Compass again. I want to see if they'd be a good target for Rona, Disciple of Gix for some life gain (after sac'd with Sai, Master Thopterist). They also fix my mana, and help me get to 4 or 5 colors if I want to full-cast or return a Chamber Sentry.