Crested Sunmare

Creature — Horse

Other Horses you control have indestructible. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy it.)

At the beginning of each end step, if you gained life this turn, create a 5/5 white Horse creature token.

Tokens

• Horse 5/5 W

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
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

legendofa on The more I think about …

4 months ago

Dragging this back out to obsess about it some more with the release of the Planeswalker's Guide to Aetherdrift, Part 2. The city is being rebuilt with outside help, and it seems like enough living people and mummies survived to facilitate that. That answers two of my questions, but I still have no idea what the population numbers are. Either the city of Naktamun was much bigger than I assumed, the death toll of two wars was much lower than I assumed, or both.

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Point 1: What counts as a survivor? Are only living people counted as survivors, or are mummies included? Grisly Survivor, Resolute Survivors, and Survivors' Encampment don’t provide many useful hints. There’s also Disposal Mummy, Dutiful Servants, Mummy Paramount, and Unraveling Mummy as the Amonkheti mummies in the Hour of Devastation set. In the 2017 online stories, there’s almost no mention of the mummies once the Hour of Devastation starts, and they don’t show up in the card art unless they’re the focus, so the number of mummies after the Hours is a complete unknown.

As a side point, there’s no real indication that the mummies of Amonkhet are independent, or even sentient, before the Aetherdrift Guide. In fact, cards like Dutiful Servants carry the implication that they are very much not self-aware, but Unconventional Tactics make that more ambiguous. In the Aetherdrift Guide, though, they suddenly demand independence and partnership, and have opinions and desires. This is the sort of detail I would have loved to see in the Amonkhet stories (and I was reading them as they came out). Even just a couple of paragraphs from a mummy’s point of view would flesh out the world that much more.

The March of the Machine story doesn’t offer anything else. The Amonkhet cards in March of the Machine are Blossoming Sands, Djeru and Hazoret, Injector Crocodile, Invasion of Amonkhet  ^Flip, Khenra Spellspear  ^Flip, Ruins Recluse, Sandstalker Moloch, Swamp, and Unseal the Necropolis, none of which offer too much insight.

So the number of mummies helping clear rubble and replant farms and construct a racetrack is a giant question mark. They’re simply there when they need to be and not there when they don’t. Do they count as survivors? I honestly have no idea, and that bugs me.

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Point 2: How many survivors are there? The current population of Amonkhet is apparently enough to have "crowds lining the route and packing the grandstands", which to me suggests more than a few hundred, or even a few thousand. I would take this as at least tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand, going off typical capacities for major motor sports stadiums. This probably includes mummies as well as living people, but the total is still several orders of magnitude larger than what I would have expected.

Incidentally, I would expect the mummies—who explicitly failed the trials, usually with a major injury—to be the first ones to die. I don’t pretend to know much about invading, but cutting off supply lines seems to be pretty popular, and neither Nicol Bolas or Elesh Norn seem to have thought of that. Nicol Bolas even made sure that the people of Naktamun were entirely reliant on mummy labor, and he doesn't take advantage of that. So much for masterminds and tactical geniuses... Mummies are explicitly said to massively outnumber the living in the Aetherdrift Guide, so either Amonkhet was like 75% mummy for the Hour of Reckoning (not especially borne out by the story or cards), or they had a very low casualty rate across two invasions.

The Aetherdrift Guide includes the sentences "The Phyrexian invasion saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Amonkheti. Newly risen under the Walking Curse, these fresh undead were not eager to submit to the old order of servile mummification." I'm getting two inferences from this. First, the Phyrexians did not process, convert, or utilize tens of thousands of dead Amonkheti for whatever reason--were they immediately coated in lazotep as soon as they died?. Second, the living population of Naktamun after Hour of Devastation was at least in the tens of thousands.

So after the Accounting of Hours, there were enough living people for tens of thousands to die against Phyrexia. After Phyrexia, there were still enough survivors (probably including both living people and mummies) to form crowds of significant size to watch the Aetherdrift rally. So we’re blowing way past the 30,000 population of ancient Memphis, the most populated city in the world at its height and a major inspriastion for Naktamun. I’m not going to fault a city in a fantasy story being unrealistically big, but I would like to at least have an idea on how unrealistically big it is, besides just “big enough to support the story”.

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Time to start headcanoning some numbers.

Starting with what I would consider at the upper edge of realistic, put the living and mummy population of Naktamun at 30,000 each, for a total of 60,000. Let's then assume a devastating, plane-threatening 80% mortality rate for each group, each conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 6,000 living and 6,000 mummies for a total population of 12,000. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,200 living people and 1,200 mummies, for a total of 2,400. That could probably serve as a base to rebuild from, but it doesn't capture grandstands full of cheering crowds or Phyrexians killing tens of thousands of people.

Try some different numbers. Now, the initial total population of Naktamun is 3,000,000. Of that, let's say 2,000,000 were mummy servants and 1,000,000 were living soldiers in constant training. (This is still very high, given the apparent technology and appearance of the city.) Let's further say that there was a 50% casualty rate among the living and 25% casualty rate among the mummies for each major conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 1,500,000 mummies and 500,000 living. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,125,000 mummies and 250,000 living. That feels too high for a city struggling to keep itself alive.

Tweaking numbers until I'm happy. 400,000 mummies; 150,000 living; 550,000 total. 60% casualty rate for both groups, each conflict. After HoD, there would be 160,000 mummies and 60,000 living survivors. After Phyrexia, there would be 64,000 mummies and 24,000 living survivors. That feels pretty okay to me. Mummies outnumber the living by about a 3:1 ratio, the Phyrexians could have killed tens of thousands of people, and there's still enough for crowds to fill grandstands and line racetracks, assuming it's mostly mummies.

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On other notes from the previous discussion, there’s still no real word on where Crested Sunmare came from, which is interesting, and the “Death Race” set does go through Amonkhet.

Also... (spoilers) Show

There are apparently a bunch of really old dead guys about to start fighting over who controls Naktamun, so I expect the local population to drop even more. Survivors have also spent time exploring the Broken Lands and ruins outside of Naktamun, but don't appear to be finding much more than abandoned tombs containing hostile dead people. These ancient monarchs worship the Scarab and Locust Gods, and are warring among themselves over who has the right to control Naktamun. So there's potential for yet another conflict that will chop the survivors' numbers down again. But the people of Naktamun have two new gods on their side. Stay tuned, I guess.

Tsukimi on Eda, Mother of the Lost

9 months ago

Crow_Umbra This is the fun of token copy shenanigans! So many cards that get fun with lifegain, Ocelot Pride, Crested Sunmare, or even things like Attended Healer with Bennie Bracks, Zoologist or Wolverine Riders, Tendershoot Dryad etc. if your goal is to go real wide. And that's before we talk about other fun Myriad, Embalm, or copy cards.

I am realizing I need to wait to the official rules release but if I am reading this right then I should be able to cast clone cards with offspring, allowing to me to be really versatile in my copy token targets. This has always been my favorite part of the deck, it always feels new to play because its versatile and will always be different based on what friends are at the table are running.

I do like the populate I am just hoping it doesn't seem too OP or overly customized to the table so I figured before I deep dive deck building I'd see if anyone else had any ideas (:

-- Seeing your second comment Faerie Artisans are the OG powerhouse of the populate deck because they stick around when they're made with populate! I love the card and ability, but it is definitely one my table has learned to groan at on sight so if my commander had a similar ability I think I'd get some sideye haha.

I definitely like the timing/restriction idea for either ability. I kind of saw populate as the kids sticking around and helping her around the house/with the younger kids. Any thoughts on restrictions for offspring? Only on my turn seems kind of uninspired but it was my first thought

legendofa on The more I think about …

1 year ago

Optimator I assume you're referring to the flavor text on Crested Sunmare. As I understand it, story influences flavor text much more often than the other way around (this is where Ghostfire deserves mention), and it's easy enough to interpret this as desperate speculation on Djeru's part rather than an indicator of future events. It's possible that it's simply another desert monster, alongside the cerodons and sandwurms.

Sure, the big horse is there, and it's somewhat out of place both mechanically and flavorfully, but that is literally the only suggestion that anything else might exist on Amonkhet. Even if Djeru is right, and the Sunmare comes from somewhere else on the plane, it would still have the Phyrexian Invasion to contend with. And if this hypothetical horse-land of Amonkhet is isolated enough to survive two separate planar invasions with nobody on- or off-plane being aware of its existence, how much influence can it have?

Crested Sunmare, by itself, is too vague and undeveloped to offer anything more than a kernel of inspiration.

Optimator on The more I think about …

1 year ago

Crested Sunmare

Quartzrockz on

1 year ago

Hey RCD2023,

I see you have a similar one XD those pesky lifegain/counters decks. Your deck looks like a very optimized version of mine.

Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn doesn't have the same target drawback that Treebeard does, but does have the drawback of happening at the end of turn instead of instant counters like Treebeard's.

Most of your cards are better upgrads too. Old One Eye and Crested Sunmare being great generators. And your stompy creatures, like all of the hydras, would grow into a big threat pretty quickly.

How is your draw like? And do you find your deck relies on your commander a bit? I haven't yet playtested mine (too much work).

I can't I forgot Beacon of Immortality. And I might smuggle in Champion of Lambholt.

Sleepysherlock on Life and Death

1 year ago

Alright, i'm bringing memes not dreams this time to strap in.

Protection Racket, Ajani, Strength of the Pride, Ajani's Pridemate, Erebos's Intervention, Heliod's Intervention, Witch of the Moors, Tivash, Gloom Summoner, The Gaffer, The Book of Exalted Deeds, Sanguine Indulgence, Rodolf Duskbringer, Nightmare's Thirst, Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles, Griffin Aerie, Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit, Field-Tested Frying Pan, Crested Sunmare, Cradle of Vitality, Angelic Accord, Resplendent Angel, Righteous Valkyrie, Speaker of the Heavens, Oketra's Last Mercy, Angel of Destiny, Underworld Connections, Priest of Fell Rites, Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor, Erebos, Bleak-Hearted, Erebos, God of the Dead, Consuming Vapors, Bloodtracker, Blind Obedience, Archangel of Wrath, Soul of Eternity, Sister Hospitaller, Path of Bravery, Noxious Gearhulk, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper, Kaya's Wrath, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Astarion, the Decadent, Angelic Chorus, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Treasonous Ogre, Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip, Stinging Study, Lone Rider  ^Flip

Alright that's the first round

DrSnipy on Liesa

1 year ago

Out: Crested Sunmare (No synergy), Mindcrank(No synergy), Kaya, Bane of the Dead (too expensiv), Oketra's Last Mercy (sounds cool, doesnt do much)

In (few budget changes): Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant (ez Lifegain), Suture Priest (Like Soulsisters, but hurts the enemy too) and Dawn of Hope (draws cards and can make lifelinkers)

Main Problem would be the manacurve of the deck

SufferFromEDHD on Kambal's Chunky Life Drain Soup

2 years ago

Excellent deck name!!!

Crested Sunmare, Resplendent Angel or Griffin Aerie for the consistent tokens.

Well of Lost Dreams auto include! S much value in this list.