Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin

Legendary Land

(Transforms from Search for Azcanta.)

{T}: Add {U}.

{2}{U}, {T}: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a noncreature, nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

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

Discussion (37)

SpiralWolfos on Tolaria Reborn

5 years ago

I think this could maybe be used as the payoff side of a dual-sided card similar to those we see in Ixalan block, like Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin . Otherwise I feel like having a repeatable counter on something that is as difficult to remove as a land would be far too powerful, even with all of the countermeasures tacked on.

Natalbee on

5 years ago

How do you normally win with this deck? It seems like if your opponent can deal with Doom Whisperer and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip you're kind of dead in the water, hoping to top-deck removal spells.

You probably don't need 4x Disinformation Campaigns, and I personally don't see the merit of Dead Weight in any deck running board wipes like Ritual of Soot or Golden Demise. You could cut 2x Campaign, both Weights, 2x Vraska's Contempt, and add in some cheaper, single-target removal like Cast Down, Murder, Lava Coil or Fight with Fire.

I've had a lot of success running Gilded Lotus - I put it in every midrange deck, if possible. Playing a Lotus on Turn 5 still leaves up mana for a Murder, Sinister Sabotage, Golden Demise, Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, etc. I've also really enjoyed running a couple Tetzimoc, Primal Deaths, as he gives you something to sink excess mana into and he usually forces your opponent to play more reserved.

I would also cut down on 2x Discovery / Dispersal and 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip, put in 1x Connive / Concoct and 2x Chemister's Insight/Dark Bargain/Notion Rain.

I would also add in Shocks and/or Lightning Strikes, but I think I'm turning this into my old Grixis Midrange I played when Tamiyo, the Moon Sage was in Standard. 6 years ago. Damn... where does the time go? TELL ME.

Oof_Magic on

5 years ago

biorose671

I do need to get around to putting a sideboard list together. I imagine against miracles we would bring in Nissa, Vital Force as a value walker that can apply pressure. Maybe a Pithing Needle for Celestial Colonnade, Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, and the planeswalkers. Can’t do much about Terminus itself. Only improve our ability to rebuild.

skoobysnackz on Bant Nexus

5 years ago

Infinite turns is kind of an exaggeration (I'll change the description) because it never really gets to that point. But the idea is that as the game goes on and you thin out your deck with Search for Azcanta  ^Flip and fetches and just drawing lots of cards, your chances of running into Nexus of Fate increase considerably and since its a 4 of, with a little help from Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin you end up taking most of the remaining turns. I don't really expect too much consistency with taking all the turns, usually just a few is enough to do a bunch of damage with the planeswalkers.

RingweMakil on Ravaging Command

5 years ago

Nathanaiel Field of Ruin is an absolute must-have in this format, I fear. Any reactive or midrange deck that is not utilising the free land destruction provided by Field is a strictly inferior version of another deck that is. Celestial Colonnade, Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, Academy Ruins, Raging Ravine, Urza's Tower, Sea Gate Wreckage, Eldrazi Temple, Moorland Haunt, Gavony Township, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and I could go on - the point is, there are a lot of lands with powerful effects in Modern, and to not have the free answer provided to them in the form of Field is a serious omission that only the most proactive strategies can afford to make. A land drop that also double times as a spell is extremely powerful, especially one that answers the powerful lands of other decks.

So, given the necessity of Field of Ruin, is it greedy to play 3 colours? With any less than 22 coloured sources, I think so, but given that I play 26 lands, generally speaking, being colour screwed is not an issue. This is also greatly helped by the fact that so many of my cards only require one mana of a certain colour - the exceptions being the planeswalkers and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. I think it would be extremely greedy to attempt to play Cryptic Command in this list, for instance, but when most spells can be cast within the realm of having just one black, blue and red, Field really doesn't hurt a lot. Also worth noting is that unlike Ghost Quarter, Field does not put you down a land, and also does fix your mana after it is activated, so in most cases, Field really shouldn't hurt.

The only time when Field is a real pain is if you have 2 of your 3 lands are Field of Ruin, because then your hand can be really slowed down. In such cases, either mulligan, or keep and pull through with Thoughtseize and Fatal Push. Consider also the early requirements of this list - with a single black mana, most of the relevant 1 and 2 drops are castable. The lack of Lightning Bolt is a conscious choice, one made for many reasons, one among which is the mana.

Inquisition of Kozilek misses too much. Cryptic Command, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, everything Tron plays, all of Jund's big drops including Bloodbraid Elf, Primeval Titan, Through the Breach, all the random four mana planeswalkers a bunch of different decks play, Gurmag Angler, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and I could go on - but the point is, in a deck that isn't seeking to proactively push through damage and end the game, unconditional answers are better than conditional ones, and Thoughtseize excels in many a situation where Inquisition is only medium. The life loss is not as big a deal as it is in other decks, owing to the 3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and 3 Collective Brutality.

The list initially did have 2 Inquisition of Kozilek alongside its current package, but that proved to be too much discard in a primarily reactive shell. They were removed for more versatile and unconditional answers in Kolaghan's Command and Dreadbore. So far, that choice has definitely served me very well. Only 3 pure discard spells means the chance of dead draws is much lessened; besides, Kolaghan's Command, Collective Brutality, Sedraxis Specter and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip all double time as hand disruption that also has additional effects, and so unlike the one mana discard spells, is much less often a dead draw.

Re: Tron, yes, game 1 is god awful. Game 2, however, is actually favoured. If Tron is heavy in your meta, I would recommend sideboarding more Pithing Needle and Fulminator Mage; otherwise, the general plan is Thoughtseize into Extirpate + Field of Ruin , with a bunch of countermagic to survive through their big threats. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is invaluable in this matchup owing to his ability to exile Wurmcoil Engine; Thundermaw Hellkite can also come down and eat a Karn Liberated or a Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. You can also set up some nasty loops with Kolaghan's Command and Fulminator Mage that completely shuts the Tron player out of the game; and since, unlike traditional control lists, this one can turn the corner and end the game super fast, once you've gotten your disruption down, you should be able to power through to the finish before they start making their seventh and eighth land drops.

Another line of play to keep in mind is Extirpate on one of their big threats - Tron is not a threat dense deck, and if it is clear they are going to be able to make their mana and start casting big guys, then it may be worth your while to think of all the threats in their deck, and then just start cutting through the lot, so that they have nothing to do with all their mana. Tron does not really have a draw engine either, so once you've dealt with the first 3-4 threats, you're in a very very favoured position to win.

I will be testing a lot more with this deck and I plan to post the results to https://patreon.com/invite/bxlvxg in a few days; stay tuned if this deck is something that interests you, and you want to see where this goes!

RingweMakil on RingweMakil

5 years ago

Ah. You are quite right, I ought to have been less ambiguous in my phrasing. By "can" play, I mean "can play without significantly hindering their own manabase". Most tricolour decks, then, would not be able to support over 2 Field of Ruin without encountering mana issues consistently.

And yes, I do mean to just destroy a nonbasic land. Consider the number of powerful nonbasics being played in Modern - UrzaTron lands, Celestial Colonnade and other manlands, Academy Ruins, Gavony Township and co., Inkmoth Nexus, Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin ... having access to an answer against these assorted threats that do not take up a spell slot is very very powerful, and often, I would argue, unless you are on a completely unreactive and very proactive aggro/combo deck (burn, storm), necessary.

In the context I made my original comment, the person in question was playing Archive Trap. The forced search from Field of Ruin is therefore obviously beneficial.

hungry000 on Make Mill Great Again

5 years ago

Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin in the lands...? I feel like that's wrong.

multimedia on

5 years ago

Hey, nice first deck, you have good card sense, you have the right ideas with Teferi, Chromium, Search, Contempt, Syncopate and Scatter for post rotation Esper control.

Unfortunately, if you're making this deck for post rotation then you need to cut both Irrigated Farmland and Glimmer of Genius they're rotating out. The loss of Farmland will really hurt an Esper or Azorius control manabase. Most likely in Guilds of Ravnica there will be a new Dimir dual land because Dimir is a guild in the set--Azorius or Orzhov are not in the set. Because of this then thinking ahead and playing more black than white is a good direction.

With a new Dimir dual land, but no new Azorius or Orzhov options then white will be best as a splash for only Teferi, Chromium and some sideboard artifact hate such as Invoke the Divine. White can be splashed very much like you're doing here with 4x Fortress, 4x Chapel and 2x Plains. 10 sources of white is enough to only splash some single white cards, but that's it and only single white and only a few.

Walk the Plank is very lackluster especially with Teferi since you want a two drop removal spell that can be cast at instant speed to take advantage of Teferi's ability of untapping two lands. Consider Blink of an Eye? I think it will become a staple removal spell for control post rotation because of it's interaction with Teferi. Most importantly for four mana you can bounce any nonland permanent and draw a card which is very good for control. I see Blink taking Gimmer's spot main deck.

Anticipate or Opt are good cards for control. They're not played in Standard simply because there's no deck space for them, but post rotation they may be needed to help the land situation. Anticipate in my opinion is better than Opt it can search more cards and gives you the option of choosing what card to put into your hand. It's another option to possibly replace Glimmer post rotation. I like the interaction with Anticipate and Teferi because it's only two mana.

Cancel is very lackluster; I presume you're using it as a replacement of Disallow? Disallow is only playable because of the different unique effects it can counter. As a counterspell if it couldn't counter abilities then it wouldn't be playable at three mana. For now I think more Scatter and Negate is better than Cancel. One Cancel is fine as a catch-all counter, but I wouldn't play 4 of them. Hopefully, in Guilds of Ravnica blue gets a new two mana counterspell to better replace Disallow.

Consider this spell base:

• 3x Anticipate
• 4x Syncopate
• 3x Scatter
• 2x Negate
• 1x Cancel
• 4x Blink
• 2x Cast Down
• 4x Contempt

Consider 3x Teferi and 2x Chromium? Teferi is more important for control than Chromium. Chromium is the seven mana finisher where as Teferi is the five mana engine that controls the game for you until you cast Chromium. Teferi and Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin are broken together. The interaction is already proven in Standard to be nuts, post rotation it will most likely stay just as powerful or may even be the best option for control.

Good luck with your deck.