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

Brainstone

Artifact

, , Sacrifice this: Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.

kamarupa on Cloaked Whispers

1 week ago

I love the concept of this deck, but it is def not going to be easy to make it work well. You have some obvious needs in 1) getting the combo pieces 2) having enough mana to cast them all before your opponent stops you 3) having room for defense and removal and 4) making sure your cloaked creatures die.

1) You not only need have some way of assembling your combo, you also need a way to put a spell on top of your library. I have to do this with my deck Cover Girl. The only spells I could find that made sense in that deck were: Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Brainstone, and Scheming Symmetry. I suggest running 2x of each of the first. Scheming Symmetry is a pretty big risk, so I advise against that here. The upshot of Jace is that you can cycle through your library 3 cards at a time, so you not only get to control your top card, you also get to filter for what you need.

2) Provided you employ some added filtering with Jace and Brainstone, I think you can remove some of your extra threats. This will allow for a little ramp. I guess I'd probably go with Birds of Paradise unless you're worried it will get bolted for being a bird. Then I'd probably go with a land enchantment like Fertile Ground. I think with the high-ish cost of your combo pieces, a little ramp is going to be helpful in creating a consistency in speed. (not to be fast, just to be as fast as it can be more reliably)

3) It occurs to me that cloaked spells could be blockers IF you both don't have all the combo pieces in place AND you whiffed with Hide in Plain Sight. Those are somewhat narrow conditions, so it's probably best not rely on that. I see you have room for 35 more cards, approx 24 of which will probably be lands, so I'll have to wait and see how much room you have for more defense and removal, but I think you have to include Bone Splinters. It's not as fast as I'd like but it pulls double duty in kicking off the final step in your combo and it does it for 1 MV instead of 3 like Start / Finish. I'd probably throw in 1x Fog, too. And Assassin's Trophy and Abrupt Decay would be excellent additions to the mainboard and sideboard. I'd probably go 4xBone Splinters, 2xAssassin's Trophy, 1xAbrupt Decay in the main and then extra of the instants in the sideboard.

4) Bone Splinters helps make sure you creatures die, but a board wipe like Killing Wave would probably be useful as well late game.

TheOfficialCreator on I solved mana screw and …

1 year ago

"Unplayable chaff Brainstone"

Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Sharuum the Hegemon, Zur the Enchanter, mid-power affinity decks... it's not going to be winning any tournaments anytime soon but it is certainly not unplayable.

estoner on I solved mana screw and …

1 year ago

My apologies, I'll elaborate. Artifacts should cost any kind of mana but be weak while colored spells are more powerful but harder to cast. The design space of most artifacts is negated by the existence of most spells that are colored but splashable.

Look at unplayable chaff Brainstone. In the current ruleset, you would never play a card that is just an overcosted jank version of a U instant. If the game used color screw as negative variance instead of manascrew, suddenly a control deck could run one or two as insurance in case they were drawing badly.

Cards that require heavy devotion SHOULD be more powerful. Look at Necropotence. I think all cards that take three or more pips should be pushed just as much as high CMC cards are, because then you have to balance ramp against your color access, making power levels a graph with both an X and Y axis instead of just an exponential curve that goes parabolic at 7, where any spell instantly wins the game.

I was testing variants of the manabase rules in paper. Obviously I couldn't play as both players AND record at the same time. I was just commenting on my observations.

Wastes is the best-designed card in the game. By incorporating it in the structure of the game as the default land, suddenly even drawing a basic Island feels like a relief. If I can just play fetches and 4x Trop, 4x U-sea, 4x Volcanic, why do we even have colors at all?

Choosing between land and nonland on draw when you have a 5-drop in hand you lack the colors for and you're losing on board is interesting. Do you gamble on hitting the the correct colored mana source from your manabase or just take a spell from your library you know you can cast?

Regarding Khans of Tarkir, you have to remember that most 3+ color lands either come in tapped or ping you like City of Brass. Colorless cards being easy to cast but weak while colored spells are sick but hard to cast is interesting, and that's how the game was meant to be played anyway.

Brimaz is a great example. No deck that runs Brimaz would ever be screwed off casting him because YOU WOULD BE PLAYING DUALS ANYWAY. And why would 3+c control want a 1CC potato that dies to Day of Judgment?

I still believe that color screw should replace mana screw and bad artifacts like Armillary Sphere should get another chance

Andramalech on Dingus Tribal

1 year ago

Found some!

Formatting won't allow me to show the retro frame, but all of these do various bits to your end, and have a retro-framed alternative printing. And minus Force of Vigor, most of these are relatively cheap. I hope it helps!

Coco910 on The Weenie Hut General

1 year ago

Brainstone, Wayfarer's Bauble, and Ancient Den could be solid ramp and draw additions to grab with urza saga

lagotripha on Modern Mono Green

1 year ago

If you want judge/denizen to be more reliable, you can grab some Oran-Rief, the Vastwood or lean into spells running Hall of Oracles/Inspiring Call. There are some great budget counters cards in the 1 mana slot - Experiment One, Generous Visitor, Willow Geist etc. Mutant's Prey offers light removal and Servant of the Scale/Swarm Shambler some survivability.

Other sources of cardraw exist - Brainstone is notable, as is Harmonize.

hiddengibbons on Rakdos Wheel

1 year ago

@ Balaam__: I have thought about that. I think it would be more useful than the Hellspark Elemental, but drawing a Reforge the Soul off of it is a possibility I’m not thrilled about. Brainstone would then become more important in the deck.

Omniscience_is_life on Wait wait wrong egg WRONG EGG | **Primer**

2 years ago

Here's what I'm currently thinking the plan'll be:

Once and Future will be cut for Noxious Revival

Emeria Shepherd will be cut for Flawless Maneuver

Nyxbloom Ancient will be cut for Protean Hulk

Return of the Wildspeaker will be cut for Brainstone

Sneak Attack will be cut for Combustible Gearhulk

Austere Command will be cut for Winds of Abandon

Should anyone find themselves in a state of astonished disagreement, please feel free to air your grievances in the comment section down below ;)

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