Pithing Needle

Artifact

As Pithing Needle enters the battlefield, name a card.

Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated unless they're mana abilities.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	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
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (44)

Caran_Lyg on I fell and landed in Modern.

3 weeks ago

Thanks legendofa and cartoonywolf. I think all of your suggestions are great. Pithing Needle and spyglass are great form of removal. Kogla, the Titan Ape and Avenger of Zendikar I considered putting those 2 on the CMNDR deck I based this deck from but ended up not adding them because first, the Ape’s 3rd ability targets only 3 Humans in the deck. The Avenger I really wanted to put because it creates chump blockers but its last ability only helps plants. I know it’s a big threat but I only had 2 plus any plants it creates every time a land ETB and didn’t find cards that can create more plants that also had synergy with Landfall. Baloth Woodcrasher I can definitely put there. It worked for my CMNDR deck.

legendofa on I fell and landed in Modern.

3 weeks ago

Would something like Pithing Needle or Sorcerous Spyglass help? Unless you have a planeswalker-heavy meta, The Immortal Sun would probably be a sideboard card anyway.

wallisface on Jund Saga

3 weeks ago

As far as decent 1-mana artifacts that you can add as 1-ofs for Saga, the normal go-tos are Haywire Mite and Shadowspear (both which you're already running), and then Springleaf Drum, Nihil Spellbomb, Pithing Needle, Pyrite Spellbomb. I'm not sure how many of those you'd actually want to run mainboard, as many are more useful as sideboard options - I think the combination of Haywire Mite, Shadowspear, and Mishra's Bauble is already a good mix :)

sergiodelrio on No sacrifice

1 month ago

Your best bet imho is to try and prevent activations with cards like Pithing Needle Cursed Totem Interdict Null Rod Phyrexian Revoker Sorcerous Spyglass Damping Matrix or Karn, the Great Creator

Some things will still fly under the radar tho and does not really help your Sauron I guess.

wallisface on Timely tokens

2 months ago

Some thoughts:

• You never really want to play lands that are very likely to enter the battlefield tapped - all of Vineglimmer Snarl, Choked Estuary, Necroblossom Snarl, and Zagoth Triome are all waay too slow to be useful. If you can't acquire fetchlands, then I'd suggest trying to acquire the fastlands - Blooming Marsh, Botanical Sanctum and Darkslick Shores.

• With no basics, you automatically lose to Blood Moon if an opponent plays it. You also have absolutely nothing to gain if the opponent casts Path to Exile or Assassin's Trophy on one of your permanents.

• For Collected Company to have any reasonable chance of hitting at least 2 creatures, your deck needs to have at least 27 creatures within it - without this number there's no point to playing the card. At the moment, with only 15 creatures that the card can use, the card just isn't good enough.

• Once you remove Collected Company, your deck has a lot more lands than it will need - and you could easily drop down to 22 (or possibly even 20).

• Urza's Saga lends itself really well into finding various 1-of toolbox cards that can save you in certain situations. Having a single copy of cards like Shadowspear, Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus etc can help you put-the-squeeze on many opponents.

• Lonis, Cryptozoologist really wants to live in a deck with lots of creatures. Just like Collected Company, your creature-count isn't high enough to justify this card.

• If you're playing Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, you probably want to play the full playset, as well as the full 4-ofs each of Ovalchase Daredevil and The Underworld Cookbook.

wallisface on myrs

2 months ago

This deck seems pretty decent for a new-brew! Some suggestions for improving the deck:

• You always want to aim to be only running 60 cards. While 64 might not seem like much over this, it's going to lead to a less-consistent, and weaker, deck.

• Aether Vial seems like a weak choice here, as your deck has a range of differently-costed creatures, you'll be unlikely to get much reliable value from it. I would personally be swapping it for a range of 1-off 0-1 mana artifacts you can toolbox-find with Urza's Saga - for example, one-each of Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, Shadowspear and Welding Jar

Icbrgr on MBC: 8-Rack

3 months ago

Awesome suggestion! I think The Mycosynth Gardens could probably take the place of Ghost Quarter in the main and move ghost to the side; but there is ALWAYS a Titan/Hammertime player at my LGS I just didn't see them last night. But thank you I'm gonna get me some of them!

I was honestly on the verge of cutting Smallpox but the effect although horrible for everyone makes Tombstalker or any delve creature Tasigur, the Golden Fang/Gurmag Angler really easy to reliably cast; and the 5 toughness was what allowed me to win against Rhinos.

I have done zero playtesting against any decks running The One Ring... I think my main goal is to just not let them cast it at all via discard because I'm pretty sure I just lose if it resolves when they have 4+ life and/or have 1+ card in hand... Shrieking Affliction can still hurt them; but if they draw all the cards that's not gonna get it done...and I'm just not sure what I would do with a copy of the ring... dig for Pithing Needle/other sideboard cards?... Idk I'll playtest it and get a better understanding of it (I have a full playset of Phyrexian Metamorph just collecting dust so why not?)

legendofa on Card name precision

3 months ago

This is a very rules-lawyer-y question, but Magic-ese is a very precise language.

How accurately do you need to name a card for effects like Pithing Needle?

If I wanted to prevent Kenrith, the Returned King from activating, is saying the (non-card) name "Kenrith, Returned King" acceptable? Is just "Kenrith" too ambiguous, with or without pointing at the card?

If I Underdark Rift a Chandra, Flame Whatever, can I name "the Chandra I put into your library" with Pithing Needle if I can't name the specific card?