Apostle's Blessing

Instant

({WP} can be paid with either {W} or 2 life.)

Target artifact or creature you control gains protection from artifacts or from the color of your choice until end of turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	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
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

kamarupa on Tails from the Crypt

1 month ago

First off, nice work. It's not easy to build decks such as this - there's just never enough space to pack everything you want in and I think you made a lot of solid choices.

Why Apostle's Blessing instead of Faith's Shield as a budget replacement for Heroic Intervention? Artifacts? Mana?

1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity to the manabase?

I feel like it needs some draw card/filtering/tutors. I like 3-piece combos because they're fun when they work, but they almost always need so much coaxing. I'm fairly certain you're not going to find near duplicates of any of the combo pieces, either, which always makes a brew both riskier and more difficult to pull off.

Another concern I have with this brew is that Fog, Suppression Field, and Authority of the Consuls won't slow down opponents enough. Those spells account for 1/6 of the deck, which sounds like a lot, but odds are you'll only hit one in the opening hand and maybe a second before the game ends. I don't think that's enough.

I don't know that there's a solution per se. I'd experiment with trying tutors and draw engines and also more pillow fort spells like Ghostly Prison in place of Nature's Claim and Tamiyo's Safekeeping. Protection spells are great, but if you can't get the combo, there's nothing really to protect.

For the record, I playtested it about 6 times and never got the entire combo within 10 turns and never had much defense either. I think, yes, given 15+ turns, it would start to look viable, but that's asking a lot from a fast format like Modern.

capwner on "Master of Cruelties" - Budget but Strong?

3 months ago

As an x/4 in a no fury meta I think this card could potentially be good. The deck really wants Ragavan but yeah that's not very budget. Bowmasters too.

About 'understanding what to replace,' the way I think of it is, you know there are always more potential good cards than you can actually run in any deck, usually there are multiple good ways to build a deck. Every card should play into your synergy, except for sideboard cards which can attack something very specifically. And every card should be the best possible option for its slot (most versatility, most synergies with your other cards, most favorable in specific interactions vs. specific cards). Example, this is why I love Apostle's Blessing in here, it's versatile because it protects and evades, and these are both things your deck REALLY needs. And it's a cheap instant. Great card.

But now look at Goblin Tunneler, I see a card that is part of the gameplan, but it's also an x/1 non hasty creature and a 2 drop. This is going to fall short a lot of the time. Maybe a card like Wedding Invitation or Key to the City could be better in this slot. Generator Servant is great for the haste but it has the same weakness. Splitting that with artifact ramp like you did is good, maybe consider options like Pentad Prism but go with what you think plays the best. Molten Collapse is a strictly better Dreadbore and not expensive. Sunken Citadel might be a good land to combo with Rogue's Passage, maybe then Field of Ruin instead of Ghost Quarter? And Graven Cairns? On the lands topic I really like the idea posted above of adding Leechridden Swamp but you do need the fetches to really make it work.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death has a nice effect but doesn't really synergize with anything besides bringing your Master back, which it can't even do vs. LB and Solitude. Maybe adding cards that combo with her like Fulminator Mage or Augur of Skulls could make her better. Lightning Greaves also makes her and a lot of your other creatures better too, this is a card I'd consider for a 1 or 2 of. But without adding more support, you might consider cutting Alesha and adding something along another angle.

I like Brainspoil, the tutor is nice because finding the Master is definitely a bottlneck in the deck. Grim Tutor is an option but a bit more expensive, Profane Tutor is affordable but has some problems. Having at least one other tutorable 5 drop would make your BS a lot better. 1 of Glarewielder would be kind of cute.

Hand disruption is another angle you might consider, it's really good for a slightly slower combo deck like this to nullify your opponent's big early plays and buy you a couple extra turns to combo them out. Collective Brutality is a pretty decent flexible card that also finishes your opponent.

In the end I think tuning your list and making cuts is about trying to make as many of these meaningful synergy connections between different cards as possible, getting the right amount of each type of effect you want (3 vs 4 of a specific effect like Dreadbore matters a lot vs some decks!), and then you cut either your lowest synergy cards, or effects you think you could safely go down a count on. Usually you want 6-8 ways of getting your key card in action, or 6+ of each combo piece/synergy if it involves multiple cards, and in a perfect world you want 4+ post board copies of HATE for particular meta decks, like 4 Leyline of the Void vs. Living End, or 8 killspells that can kill a Primeval Titan or Sheoldred. Your board cards should address aspects of other decks that really threaten you, no need to run those Leylines if you already beat that deck most of the time. It often comes down to having the right reactive cards, so you want good numbers of the ones you'll need the most.

Sorry for the whole ass book! It seemed like you wanted the help and I liked the concept/got into it a bit once I started looking. I think there's a lot of work and playtesting you could do to really optimize this, and maybe it could end up being pretty good+still affordable!

ClockworkSwordfish on Proper Pauper Prowess

3 months ago

Looks fast, mean and unpretentious. Good stuff for Pauper!

You might prefer Chain Lightning to Lava Spike - I feel like the ability to nail creatures is more useful than the one-in-a-hundred chance of your opponent pointing another bolt back atcha. Clearing out blockers paves the path for your boys to swing to victory!

Speaking of, you might like Apostle's Blessing as a potential way to get around blockers. It's good for dodging removal, too!

Icbrgr on Eriette of the Charmed Apple

3 months ago

Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor can be some nice tools here to search for a needed enchantment...

I also think Crawlspace and Silent Arbiter are solid extra layers of protection for unexpected removal of Eriette of the Charmed Apple...

For protecting Eriette of the Charmed Apple you can also consider Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots alongside Rebuff the Wicked/Apostle's Blessing/Dawn Charm.

Balaam__ on Sabotage Stealth Mission

7 months ago

Very well put together. Quick question, does Emerge Unscathed outperform Apostle's Blessing here? I ask because artifacts are pretty ubiquitous of late. Then again, paying the Phyrexian mana cost can become difficult against certain matchups.

Headers13 on Marvelous Megatron

8 months ago

Apostle's Blessing

Faith's Shield

Razor Barrier

jordanengel on Modern Bad ETB

8 months ago

Thank you for the suggestions jdogz32 and wallisface!

I included Teferi, Time Raveler to make sure on my turn I can safely cast spells. I also removed Aether Vial and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. Then I added Apostle's Blessing for instant speed protection for artifacts Torpor Orb / creatures.

Jimmithee on

9 months ago

You do realise that Apostle's Blessing is the only spell in your deck that actually TARGETS a creature, right? Cards that don't have the word "target" in them don't trigger heroic abilities.