Arid Mesa

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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
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Arid Mesa

Land

, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice this: Search your library for a Mountain or Plains card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

CickNason on Prosshy Prossh

1 month ago

I would add more mana dorks: Ignoble Hierarch adds Jund colors and gives exalted as a bonus Deathrite Shaman acts as graveyard hate and can drain/gain at instant speed on on top of exiling any lands from anyone's graveyard for mana of any color also at instant speed. Delighted Halfling adds colorless or any color for legendary creatures and makes them uncounterable.

I would also add more aristocrat/sacrifice effects: Korvold, Fae-Cursed King crazy draw engine with sac synergy and a potential one-shot kill if he gets big enough Mahadi, Emporium Master generates treasures EOT based on how many creatures died, setting you up for big plays in the coming turns Pitiless Plunderer generates treasures whenever another creature you control dies immediately Chatterfang, Squirrel General basically a 3 mana Parallel Lives. Goes infinite with Pitiless Plunderer 1.Activate Chatterfang by paying b and sacrificing two other Squirrels. 2.The Squirrels die, triggering Pitiless Plunderer twice, creating two Treasure tokens and two 1/1 Squirrel tokens. 3.Activate a Treasure token by tapping and sacrificing it, adding b. 4.Repeat. 5.Resolve all Chatterfang abilities, causing any number of target creatures to get +2/-2 until end of turn any number of times. This gives you: Infinite colored mana. Infinite death triggers. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite sacrifice triggers. Infinite Treasure tokens. Reduce all opponents' creatures to 0 toughness.

Some pay off for sacrificing Mirkwood Bats, Blood Artist, Garna, Bloodfist of Keld & Poison-Tip Archer are good win condition for infinite sac outlet effects

Some better tutor effects: You can replace Diabolic Tutor for some other options below Diabolic Intent Tutor for 2 mana for any card with an additional sac requirement for sac effect synergies Demonic Tutor The OG best tutor Diabolic Revelation You wanna be cheeky? If you have big mana you can dump it all to grab multiple pieces to win the game

Some ramp effects: Cultivate & Kodama's Reach puts one to hand one to battlefield Nature's Lore & Three Visits puts any forest card onto the battlefield Entish Restoration is a new card that is better than harrow because you sacrifice a land on the resolution of the spell rather than paying the additional cost upfront, which makes it more safe from a feels-bad counterspells which puts you down a land. If you have a big enough creature you get 3 basics to the field all at instant speed as well. Nissa, Vastwood Seer  Flip is a pet card of mine which allows you to search for a basic and when you have 7 lands she flips and generate lands and card draw for pretty much free. Oracle of Mul Daya Allows you to play an additonal land every turn and allows to play them off the top of your library. If you dont see a card you like you can shuffle it away with a fetch land to try to get another off the top.

Better Lands: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth & Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth are must includes allowing all your lands tap for B/G respectively in addition to your other colors. The pain lands Llanowar Wastes, Karplusan Forest & Sulfurous Springs are cheap dual lands that give you all your colors The reveal lands Game Trail, Foreboding Ruins & Necroblossom Snarl are also good cheaper options which give you dual colors The shocklands Blood Crypt, Overgrown Tomb & Stomping Ground are fetchable and come into play untapped for a measley 2 life are some of the best lands in the game Verdant Catacombs is the last fetch of your color not included. I would include it if you could because it allows all three of your fetches to fetch any of your shocks or battlelands. You can also include other Fetchlands as well such as Arid Mesa, Misty Rainforest etc to fetch because they can fetch for one of the jund colors of lands at least, however, they aren't as efficient Ziatora's Proving Ground is a must include because you can fetch it out and it taps for jund as well as cycle if it comes too late. If you don't have a turn one play you can fetch it out as your best land with no plays.

Hopefully this helps

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 year ago

Guerric

Last game of the year! Sorry I've taken over your comment board, hope all these gameplay interactions help!

Opponents: Koma, Cosmos Serpent, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools / Armix, Filigree Thrasher

Starting Hand: Marsh Flats, Plains, Sol Ring, Serra Ascendant, Serra Avenger, Court of Grace, Breathkeeper Seraph

T1 - Marsh Flats into Plains into Serra Ascendant

T2 - Plains into Sol Ring and Luminarch Ascension (drew into), swung in for 6 damage

T3 - Plains into Court of Grace, drew on endstep, swung in for another 6 damage

T4 - +1 Angel on upkeep, Plains into Giada, Font of Hope and held up mana to make 2 Angels, drew on endstep, swung in for another 6 damage

T5 - created 2 Angels (6 power & 7 power) on opponents end step, +1 Angel (8 power) on upkeep. Cast a Tome of Legends getting ready for the boardwipe. Swung in for 21 damage, drew on endstep.

T6 - nobody at the table had the boardwipe so I cleaned up next turn with Sigarda's Vanguard knocking out each other player simultaneously. I think this was the fastest this deck has ever performed in a 4-man pod and all the damage was dealt by me.

Opponents: Koma, Cosmos Serpent, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools / Armix, Filigree Thrasher, O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami

Starting Hand: Windswept Heath, Arid Mesa, Plains, Bonders' Enclave, Serra Paragon, Gisela, the Broken Blade  Meld, Archangel of Thune

Thought about not including this one either as it was a slow hand and a fast game. Muldrotha comboed out turn 4 making 2 million squirrels and nobody had any interaction so we were dead on turn 5.

Opponents: Koma, Cosmos Serpent, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools / Armix, Filigree Thrasher, O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami

Starting Hand: Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Plains, Plains, Pyre of Heroes, Gisela, the Broken Blade  Meld, Battle Angels of Tyr, Angelic Curator

I had played Battle Angels of Tyr but it was quickly removed by Tevesh before I could swing with it, which is fair given a 5-man pod.

Instead I went for the slower play with Giada, Font of Hope, Angelic Curator and Angelic Sleuth on the field. I held Pyre of Heroes in hand thinking I would go for the Inspiring Overseer / Serra Paragon line to draw into some cards and get some clues.

However, Muldrotha again was a huge problem turn 5. They had Scute Swarm and cracked some fetches and played green ramp spells bringing up their total to the low 100s but they only had 32 they could attack with. They decided to swing all of them at me as I was the only one with any sort of board presence. O-Kagachi let the table know they had a fog effect but we elected to use it on the next turn.

At this point I had Giada, Font of Hope, Angelic Sleuth, Righteous Valkyrie and Pyre of Heroes on the battlefield. Once Muldrotha had started producing massive amounts of Scutes I knew they were coming at me. Also I had drawn into Archangel of Thune which I played and swung in bringing me back up to the low 20's.

On turn 6 O-Kagachi used the fog and Muldrotha just set themselves up better for the next round. They cast a Sandwurm Convergence to stop me from knocking them out.

Tevesh decided this was the best time to go off so they tapped out for a Peer into the Abyss. A lot of artifact shenanigans happened and they ended up at 4 life due to Bolas's Citadel, nearly wiped the board with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and killed Muldrotha with an artifact creature with Cranial Plating and Lightning Greaves. Unfortunately they didn't see that O-Kagachi was out and only -5 for Ugin so they were dead to the dragon on their turn.

I was able to build back relatively quickly as I drew into a Thorough Investigation and cracked some clues. O-Kagachi became the new archenemy as they had their commander out and a Fist of Suns so they were casting high-costed cards with the limited mana they had. Koma used Kiora, the Crashing Wave to negate the damage of O-Kagachi's commander. They also countered a Conflux which could've ended the game.

I tried to swing in once but was stopped by a fog. I also made another misplay with Oblation targeting their Myojin of Seeing Winds as I misheard thinking it was a 10/10 flying indestructible when it was a 3/3 that didn't even fly. They removed the divinity counter drawing 12 and drew another 2 off Oblation. Next turn they cast a Morophon, the Boundless and dropped all the spirits they drew off those 14 cards. If I had held up my Oblation for their fist of the suns instead they would have had no mana for anything else and I could've swung in for the win.

Luminarch Ascension finally popped off! When unanswered it just ends games. Even with a boardwipe it can refill the board with mana. With Giada out it adds lethal threats quickly. I understand that it may not have the surprise factor but I think the resiliency is more important here. As you've mentioned before, not a lot of people run enchantment removal as creature removal is preferable which means this has staying power.

Court of Grace was also amazing here. While 1 card a turn is not the best for 4 mana, 1 card and 1 angel for 4 is amazing. Obviously the Sol Ring did work in getting it out early but against slower decks they had no way to attack me regardless.

Pyre of Heroes was actually useful this time! Pitching the 2/2 body of Angelic Curator into a Righteous Valkyrie is a strong move. I was only able to use it once before the Ugin exile but it helped keep me in the game. Without it, I would've been dead right after Tevesh finished off Muldrotha, perhaps even in the same turn.

Sigarda's Vanguard was also great again. However if I'm not planning out dropping my angels out in the correct turn order then I'm not always getting the full benefit from her. Akroma's Will would save us the headache of counting and planning while also providing the evasion to get through flying creatures. I think I'll still stick the Vanguard as the light recursion package allows us to bring her back on another turn for additional value whereas Will would just languish in the graveyard.

We had a turn 0 discussion before games 2 and 3 and agreed on playing more mid-tier decks as I only brought Giada. The Muldrotha player typically durdles with nothing to do and decided to add in some spicy cards not knowing how they'd perform. Tevesh doesn't always go off like this but Peer into the Abyss is usually a card that gets countered. The table let it resolve due to needing to knock out Muldrotha first.

multimedia on Optimus Prime Rolls Out!

1 year ago

Hey, you're welcome.

What is your budget for making upgrades? There's tiers of price for lands to consider adding. I would add all these lands if you can.

Fetch lands are expensive price lands, but they let you better use your best lands Volcanic and Tundra.

A Fetch land can search for one of these lands and put it onto the battlefield. The Shock lands are the lesser price, but still expensive alternative to Volcanic and Tundra type lands.


You're right, convert is identical to transform, but Optimus Prime, Hero  Flip doesn't convert normally, it first dies which leaves the battlefield then returns converted. Because Optimus leaves the battlefield then when it returns it's a new object that doesn't recognize the previous Optimus, it will have summoning sickness. If you sac to convert Hero during your turn you will need a haste source for Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader  Flip to attack.

When Leader converts Optimus doesn't leave the battlefield, Hero won't have summoning sickness and keep it's counters. Another reason, that if you can, always put the +1/+1 counters on Leader because when Hero leaves the battlefield the counters go away. Hero is leaving the battlefield much more than Leader. In fact, you can control it so that Leader doesn't convert by not attacking with the lowest toughness creature you control. When Leader attacks you bolster 2 that creature, but that creature has to do combat damage to a player to convert Optimus and it can't do that if it didn't attack.

This why I suggested to sac convert Hero during an opponent's turn because then Optimus leaves the battlefield and returns. It's not on your turn though thus summoning sickness doesn't matter. On your next turn you can attack with Leader.

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 year ago

Guerric

Played another 4 games of 1v1 yesterday against my buddy's Yisan, the Wanderer Bard deck. This mono-green deck used to be the bane of my existence when I first started playing commander so it was fun seeing how Angels stacked up. Unfortunately I didn't get any Pyre of Heroes plays in these 4 games. TLDR - Giada won 3/4 games and I should've mulliganed the one I lost. Also Yisan was a bit rusty piloting his old deck so he didn't have the most optimal lines of tutor.

Starting hand: Windswept Heath, Arid Mesa, Snow-Covered Plains, Seraph Sanctuary, Well of Lost Dreams, Angelic Accord, Emeria Shepherd

While this hand technically has a draw card I had nothing below 4cmc. I did have a form of lifegain so I could potentially activate the Well. What I didn't expect was never drawing another angel for this entire game. I think it ended by turn 6 due to a Craterhoof Behemoth finisher and a bunch of mana dorks swinging in.

Starting hand: Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Scavenger Grounds, Snow-Covered Plains, Youthful Valkyrie, Angel of Vitality, Folk Hero, Enlightened Tutor

This hand had a perfect curve, an easy draw and a tutor so I obviously kept it. While I could've tutored for Pyre of Heroes I decided to go for the more efficient play and grabbed Pearl Medallion instead on turn 1. So on turn 3 after swinging in with Giada, I played Pearl Medallion for 2, Folk Hero for 1 and Youthful Valkyrie with Giada. I drew into Herald's Horn and played that next turn. That early game was so efficient that the game ended shortly after with no responses.

I also drew into Path of Ancestry which was just great when comboed with Folk Hero and Herald's Horn. If I had an Angel in hand then I would draw then scry and try and leave an Angel on top for the Horn. If I didn't have an Angel then I would scry then draw into an Angel to keep the value train going.

Starting hand: Cavern of Souls, Windswept Heath, Snow-Covered Plains, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, The Book of Exalted Deeds, Winds of Abandon, Oblation

I kept this hand because I had the perfect hate-bear for Yisan. Playing Linvala turn 3 essentially shut down Yisan's whole deck. They couldn't tutor or use their mana dorks so just had to slow play using their lands. Eventually on turn 6 they drew into a Beast Within to kill her but by that time I had gotten so far ahead in board presence that it was another easy win.

Starting hand: Snow-Covered Plains, Snow-Covered Plains, Sol Ring, Pearl Medallion, Battle Angels of Tyr, Luminarch Ascension, Angelic Field Marshal

T1 Sol Ring into a Pearl Medallion felt so great but if it wasn't for the Battle Angels of Tyr then I would've run out of gas quick. While I did get Luminarch Ascension out T2, I only added 3 quest counters on it before I closed out the game so I never saw it perform.

Folk Hero is obviously a good swap, I don't think anyone doubts its future potential for Giada.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence was amazing against Yisan. Any deck that involves activated abilities will be shut down hard with her on the field.

Enlightened Tutor is a strong early tutor, I think it might warrant replacing Steelshaper's Gift. I haven't had much success with Search for Glory the few times I used it but will probably swap it back in when I play multiplayer.

Luminarch Ascension still hasn't been great in 1v1 because the games finish so fast. If you play it turn 3 and you start first then you'll need to wait till turn 7 to start using it. All the games I played yesterday ended by turn 6 or so. I'll leave it in for multiplayer and post about it then.

Path of Ancestry was a nice bump. Obviously it's better with the draw on angel cast cards but on its own provides value. Even if we don't have an angel to play it still taps for white.

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