Well of Ideas

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy 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
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Well of Ideas

Enchantment

When Well of Ideas enters the battlefield, draw two cards.

At the beginning of each other player's draw step, that player draws an additional card.

At the beginning of your draw step, draw two additional cards.

Ravenrose on Esika, God of Dragons

1 year ago

Wild Pair - let those adorable dragons come in with a friend!

Garruk's Uprising is also an idea for this deck.

Colossal Majesty needs to go in - you need card draw and one cannot simply rely on one spell to get that. In fact, I would put Ponder, Divination, Harmonize and/or Brainstorm in this deck to make sure you have something to fall back on. Well of Ideas is thus a good ... idea! ... I will see myself out.

Tutor spells; one or two. Diabolic Tutor is pretty cheap.

If you want more damage shooters, Where Ancients Tread is fun!

Living Death is also an idea.

Anabasis on Council of Hugs

1 year ago

Frozen Aether is a nice card for a deck like this. You're already giving them cards; you might as well slow them down a little. It fits in well cards like Propaganda. Well of Ideas is a nice budget option worth considering, at 6 mana the is a little high though.

Guerric on Fish are friends

2 years ago

Hi Anabasis! Since you asked for some feedback on the list prior to committing, I'll comment here since I can link cards easily. Let's begin with the archetype you are going for here, how it plays out with Braids, Conjurer Adept, how to make it run a bit smoothly. The archetype for this deck is "group hug," which is a bit of a misunderstood archetype that has gotten unnecessary bad rep in the past. Basically, a group hug deck built properly is one that has effects which benefit everyone, but benefit the player the most. The idea is that there is little incentive to target the group hug player because they are giving free stuff, and the free stuff nonetheless keeps every player more competitive, which takes more pressure off of the group hug player, who is then ahead in the value race. The most iconic group hug commander, for example, is Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis. This commander lets every player either draw an extra card or play an extra land each end step, whereas the Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis player gets to do both. Oftentimes what makes game uneven are some players encountering ramp or draw problems, and this evens things out and keeps them competitive. Usually players won't target Kynaios and Tiro because it is benefitting them, and because it is not inherently threatening. Nonetheless, the Kynaios player is ahead in the value race, and usually plans to win with some sort of alternate win condition like Approach of the Second Sun. Braids, Conjurer Adept plays out similarly, in that every player benefits from Braids, but unlike your opponents your deck is built to exploit it, and you will have scarier things to cheat out than they will. The difference with this deck, however, and this is the critical part, is that your deck will be inherently threatenting. People will soon figure out that you are dropping scary things and have plenty of incentive to kill braids. What's worse is that the way Braids works inherently gives them added incentive to do so. The scariest words on the card are "at the beginning of each player's upkeep" are ones you will come to loathe if you don't build this right. These words mean that if you play Braids normally, each of your opponents will get to use Braids before you do. This is bad, because after three opponents have used it, the third could kill Braids before you ever get to use her. This is the nightmare that should ever be in your mind when planning or playing this deck, but if you are mindful of it, it can be overcome. So let's think first about Braids' abilities and how to best protect and exploit her to your benefit over your opponents.'

The first is to do lots and lots of what blue does best, namely, countering spells. Whereas Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis are a pillowfort group hug deck, you should think of your deck as a control group hug deck. Forget the crappy boardwipes like AEtherize and Aetherspouts. You probably included them because you've sensed they won't hit your board, but you'll find that smart players never attack with their most important pieces, and that they won't generally do what you want them to. Spectral Deluge and Whelming Wave are probably fine, but leave the rest out- you're better off just stopping things from happening to begin with than wiping a board that will probably be in your favor. Counterspells are good here for two reasons. First and foremost, they protect Braids from removal, which will be their most important duty. Beyond that, since you're getting a free permanent every turn, you have the luxury of holding your mana open, so you might as well have stuff to do with it! I'd think about playing up to ten different counterspells along with premium blue targeted removal like Reality Shift, Ravenform, etc.

Since the weakness of Braids is that our opponents' get to use her first if we cast her at sorcery speed, we might as well rewrite the script and try to play her at instant speed where feasible. Leyline of Anticipation and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir can help with this. You'll enjoy much more playing Braids on your opponent's end step and getting to use her first than the reverse. This will also aid and abet your counterspell game, in that if you don't need to counter anything you can cast other spells on your opponent's end step rather than wasting your mana. I see that you included these spells, but I wanted to make sure that you realize how critical they are to your game, and that if you can find more of this effect it will be worthwhile to include it.

A third implication is that, in the true spirit of group hug, you should get to use Braids more than your opponents. It's only fair after all! Therefore cards that copy triggered abilities like Strionic Resonator are at a premium here. Braids is far better if you get to use her twice and your opponents only get to use her once.

You also need to rework your ramp section entirely. The general rule of commanders and ramp applies here, namely, that you mostly want to play ramp that can get your commander out a turn early. This means one and two mana rocks primarily, unless it can get extra lands out. Dreamstone Hedron and Hedron Archive are traps and will make you cry. I know the theory is that you can play them for free with Braids, but keep in mind that they will never help you cast Braids. Also, they tend to be removal targets, and you'd probably be putting out something threatening over a mana rock anyway. Caged Sun is definitely worth it though because of the overall value, and because it will be worth it even to double your mana for one turn in order to cast a massive x-spell. Armillary Sphere is just bad here. Importantly, it is not a ramp spell since it doesn't put anything onto the battlefield. When people do play it, it is just for color fixing in multi-colored decks, and you don't need that. It'd be better to just play more card draw so that you can draw into your land drops normally. Sol Ring, Mind Stone, and Thought Vessel are fine, but you want to add Wayfarer's Bauble, Sky Diamond, and Coldsteel Heart at least. Sword of the Animist and Dowsing Dagger  Flip are also fabulously repeatable ramp that always makes me smile. Dreamscape Artist is also a sleeper blue card that can repeatedly ramp lands onto the battlefield which is often overlooked. You'll be far happy with these efficient options that can either get Braids out early or get her out on time with mana to spare for counterspells than with the big splashy cards.

Also, as far as card draw goes, I wouldn't take group hug to far here. You are already giving your opponents free permanents, and you are in the best card draw color and don't need their help in that. Personally I'd recommend skipping Kami of the Crescent Moon and the like entirely, and play more personal draw spells like Gadwick, the Wizened and Blue Sun's Zenith. Seriously. One advantage of Braids is that they will play spells for free and run out of stuff to cast, whereas you can keep drawing into it. If you help them out too much, you're just hurting yourself in the long run. I'd honestly replace all the reciprocal draw spells with spells which draw you cards. The only one that might be ok is Well of Ideas, but that one is benefiting you more and you first, so it fits the bill.

Some more cautions. While casting free haymakers is the reason for this deck, don't overdo it. You want to be able to afford to hard cast stuff sometimes, both in case Braids dies or just to amass more of a board presence. The power curve in magic has been getting lower in recent years, and there are many devastating spells that cost four and five mana, so don't sleep on those. Your average cmc here is 4.5, and while some high cmc haymakers are what you want, you also want lots of castable creatures.

I'm also not sure why we are playing the "creatures become every creature type" cards. Is this for better board wiping with Whelming Wave or synergy with Spawning Kraken? In my experience these synergies won't work out enough to justify the card slots, which might be better filled with counterspells or other creatures. Honestly, if I were to pick another theme to support this archetype I'd pick blink, since you doubling ETB counters can be great, but that's just me. Blinking is the sort of thing where you don't need to do a lot of it for it to be good.

A few other card choice matters. Reflections of Littjara only works on cast, so it won't copy creatures played with Braids. Definitely consider this before including a five mana enchantment that doesn't affect the board right away. Also, yes, absolutely play High Tide. It is so worth it in a mono-blue deck. Yes, Frozen Aether is amazing here. this is absolutely how to play group hug. Your opponents get free stuff, but it is only fair that you get to use your stuff first. Personally, I feel like Ominous Seas is one of the most overrated commander cards in recent years. It seems like you get a great rate on a vanilla 8/8, but often the enchantment will get blown up first, and it takes forever to come out. That's just my opinion thought.

One final thought, don't prejudice yourself too much in favor of sea monsters over against, say, eldrazi. I know the chase eldrazi are expensive, but Artisan of Kozilek is under one dollar in real world money and a wonderful thing to play with Braids, and to make copies of with your copy spells, and to give haste to with Crashing Drawbridge. You will have so much fun.

I think this will be a great deck and you have a lot of good ideas going here. I'd just refocus it a bit and then wreak some havoc!

Optimator on Tricksy Pixies

2 years ago

Some good enchantment-based card draw to note:

Kumena's Awakening - this would be an excellent choice on a budget. You should always have The City's Blessing. My favorite "not-Rhystic-Study" replacements.

Dire Undercurrents - amazing card but expensive. If I were you I would make this one of your first upgrades. Seems perfect.

Curious Obsession

Vampiric Rites

Arguel's Blood Fast  Flip and Greed and Erebos, God of the Dead - Alela's lifelink would help pay

Erebos, Bleak-Hearted is playable in this deck.

Dark Prophecy - the power is there, but might be difficult early.

Military Intelligence should be reliable. Great for two mana

Staggering Insight

Curse of Verbosity - I think it's kind of underrated. Should be good with your flyers and might take some heat off you. It's no Rhystic Study.

Rhystic Study duuuuhhhhh

Fall from Favor

Ophidian Eye

Insight - huuuge upside, potentially useless. I love it though!

Monastery Siege - it's basically drawing half a card per turn for three mana, but can protect your creatures if it's that part of the game. It's all right

Verity Circle - Huge upside, potentially useless

Phyrexian Arena - one of the best, but the price tag may not be worth it in this deck since you're running blue and can easily take advantage of flying creatures

Court of Ambition - it should be easy to get The Monarch whenever you want with your flyers

Marchesa's Decree is all right. Probably better in other decks

Sanctum of Calm Waters and Honden of Seeing Winds

Soul Ransom - might be fun to recur.

Teferi's Ageless Insight - might be good, better in decks where the commander draws cards. The power is there though.

Coastal Piracy

Kindred Discovery - ridiculous power with a ridiculous price tag to match. It's not a "may" ability so you can easily deck yourself. Isn't that winning though?

Patient Rebuilding - statistically draws one card a turn. Potentially high ceiling, can also whiff. Better for decks with graveyard synergies. Animate Dead and Necromancy are excellent, and Dance of the Dead is playable.

Mind Unbound

Well of Ideas

Thought Reflection

tiffanyann on I HAVE TWO DADS...♡ [BUDGET PRIMER][ENABLER]

2 years ago

Necrosis24 love it! But we have to stay janky with the budget so I can throw in Hired Giant (I LOVE HIM), Hypergenesis & Gate to the AEther. Weird Harvest is definitely going in.

Peoyogon Well of Ideas & Horn of Plenty will get slots. I know that Prosperity can go off late game with all the mana available and could be a neat kill spell!

Dads are proud of both of you. ♡

DemonDragonJ on Well of Ideas or Walking …

2 years ago

I have Well of Ideas in my group hug EDH deck, but I am contemplating replacing it with Walking Archive , so I wish to ask for advice from the others users here before I make a decision.

I shall compare the cards, below, listing their advantages and disadvantages.

Well of Ideas

+controller receives the benefit before their opponents do, and receives a greater benefit

-has a higher mana cost

Walking Archive

+has a lower mana cost

+provides a creature for blocking

+is a mana sink, and can potentially draw a significant number cards over the course of the game

-opponents shall receive the benefit before the controller, and all players receive the same benefit

What does everyone else say about this? Which card should I use in my deck?

Alternatively, I could replace Dictate of Kruphix with Walking Archive , although the flash mechanic on the dictate is very appealing. What does everyone say about that idea?

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