Mortlocke on Spaghetti and Beatdowns

1 week ago

After reading that deck title this is all I can think about. Sadly, I am one of the Commander obsessed, but I can appreciate an interesting Modern deck from time to time. +1 from me.

SaberTech on Why is Archenemy Not Popular?

1 week ago

I don't mind Archenemy but I think that, with Commander being as popular as it is, people get the Archenemy style of game experience often enough already. There are plenty of times where one player jumps ahead with their value engines and the rest of the table has to fight together to catch up.

Archenemy establishing who the most threatening person is right off the bat is an interesting way to do things for a game or two but I think that it gets a bit stale compared to the more chaotic aspects of a Commander game. It's a fun thing to pull out if your group or LGS is doing some sort of gauntlet of different game challenges though.

For the Archenemy format to really work I think that it requires a few additional ground rules. No infinite combos and the "heroes" should not coordinate decks. Infinite combos ruin the attrition-style personality of Archenemy game play where the heroes try to whittle down the archenemy's inflated life total and the archenemy tries to knock out the heroes one-by-one. The heroes using coordinated decks lets them divide up specialized party roles where one is always holding a hand of counterspells, another can focus on aggro, and a third can run removal while setting up engines to take over the late game. Coordinated decks further reduce the variety in game play experience.

GamingUnicorn96 on Kesita The Cultivator EDH

1 week ago

NV_1980 thank you for all the suggestions, I appreciate it, I'll definitely see if I can fit some of them in the deck!

plakjekaas on Mark Rosewater's Opinion of Trample

1 week ago

The actual question was about trample compared to other evasion mechanics. Flying works before blockers, landwalk works before blockers, trample is the only one that still needs attention after blockers are declared, which makes it stand out among other forms of evasion. The fact that that's the case is more an unintended effect of exactly "How else would trample possibly work?" than that it's an intended choice in design.

It does not say that the way trample works is bugged.

CommanderNeyo on Colors Are For Suckers

1 week ago

Have you considered Springleaf Drum and/or Relic of Legends? I know you already have Paradise Mantle, but they act as a sort of backup plan for ramp if you don't draw it (and can tap other creatures for mana as well).

Scarlet_Belvedere on Tameshi's Castle [Final Form]

1 week ago

Upvoted for the name alone. Love me some Takeshi's Castle.

Epicurus on Card creation challenge

1 week ago

It Is the Rabbit!

Instant

Multikicker

You may cast this spell only during combat

Target creature you control with base power and toughness 1/1 gains First Strike, Deathtouch, Indestructible and Hexproof until end turn. Destroy up to one target attacking creature for each time this spell was Kicked.

I believe we skipped a repeat of the challenge "Create a card that supports two Tribes, but from different angles!"

NV_1980 on Excruciate

1 week ago

This is great stuff! I'd really try to go overboard with draw based on hitting opponents. That definitely means cards like Bident of Thassa and Enduring Curiosity. Other fun cards I'd recommend would include more fun unblockables (when combined with Tetsuko) like Mist-Syndicate Naga, Mistblade Shinobi, Thousand-Faced Shadow and Veteran Ice Climber.

Morvagor on Agrus Aggro

1 week ago

There are 2 Path to Exile. I know it is a deck from 2023, but did you make any changes?

Barnie22 on Magic: the Gaythering

1 week ago

This deck is a delight <3 Me and my sister are both queer and we regularly joke that basically all of our planeswalkers are LGBT in some way to find out that multiple of them actually are? Wonderful!!

NV_1980 on For Love of Clouds

1 week ago

Love your commitment to Cloud, though I am curious as to why his Buster Sword is not in here. Is this because you're still looking for one or because it's too expensive?

NV_1980 on Kesita The Cultivator EDH

1 week ago

Looks nice. Some ideas worth considering:

• Aqueous Form: cheap to cast and makes something straight up unblockable; very useful for a commander.
• Archon of Sun's Grace: powerful token generator in a deck with this much enchantment casting.
• Combat Research: cheap to cast, provides draw and on Tuvasa it also provides a p/t enhancement and some ward.
• Daybreak Coronet: fullfilling this card's requirement is easy in this deck, and it's so much bang for your buck.
• Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr  ^Flip: strong creature that can come back as a strong aura.
• Sphere of Safety: excellent protection against attacks in an enchantment-focused deck. Becomes completely ridiculous when combined with Enchanted Evening.
• Spirit Mantle: cheap anti-creature protection.
• Strong Back: essentially a much better version of Ancestral Mask.
• Well Rested: extremely useful for a creature you regularly attack with (or tap for other reasons).

NV_1980 on Gyruda, Doom of Clones

1 week ago

Interesting build. Some more mana sources would do you some good though, as the average mana cost of spells in your deck is relatively high. Some ideas on this would be Coldsteel Heart, Fellwar Stone and/or Thran Dynamo. Next to the Animate Dead spell you've already included, I would recommend to add Dance of the Dead as well; it's almost as good.

Andromedus on Hangry Bears ʕಠ_ಠʔ

1 week ago

artcwolf22 I think you've found a way :) there are actually a few, but yes they all involve at least two elvish spirit guides. Probably the easiest one is: T1: toss two ESGs to put out a Scythecat, put out a fetch land and crack it, Scythecat now has two counters, use that land to put out a Hardened Scales, pass.

T2: put down a second fetchland, the cat gets two more counters (total 4), then crack it, the cat doubles to 8 counters then gets one more off the scales (total 9) making him 11/11, drop Urdnan with our two lands, the cat gets two more counters (13/13) and swings with double-strike for 26 trample damage.

Notably this only requires 7 cards, and OUaT lets us dig for one of them, but yeah, still not super likely. There aren't many 'fair' decks that can win t2 at all though :D

Andramalech on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

Crow_Umbra thank you for the upvote, cheers!

DemonDragonJ on Utopian Prosperity

1 week ago

I have replaced Blind Obedience and Rhystic StudyGC with Simic Ascendancy and Shapers of Nature, which helped to improve the balance of colors in this deck, and also reduced the nukber of game changers that it contains, because, as great as the previous cards were, I have decided that this deck is not a control deck, despite the fact that it contains both white and blue among its colors, so I am emphasizing this deck's focus on +1/+1 counters, instead.

DemonDragonJ on Mark Rosewater's Opinion of Trample

1 week ago

In this post, Mark Rosewater stated that he believes that it is a bug that trample applies after blockers have been declared, and I do not agree with him, about that, because how else should trample function?

What does everyone else say, about this? Do you agree with Mark Rosewater on this matter, and, if you do, how would you revise trample as a mechanic? I certainly am interested to hear what everyone else has to say, on this subject.

DemonDragonJ on What Happened to TCG Player …

1 week ago

On this past weekend, I placed an order on TCG player for the first time in over a month, and I noticed that TCGPlayer direct was not available, so I am wondering why that is the case, since that feature was a very nice one, and I am very displeased to see that it is not currently available.

What does everyone else say, about this subject? Do you know why TCGPlayer direct is not currently available?

Andramalech on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

Chino90 confidently, yes. It is, in my opinion. The number of times in my playtesting where that made/broke a game was three times, where I drew a second Urza's Saga for my turn two. I agree, it could happen to matter.

It's a feels bad moment, but that happened so rarely I'm just not worried about it, because when I am playing the Saga first and it matters, that's when I had my toolbox and another set of spells swapped into the deck.

I've gone back and forth thinking about the applicability, but having it has helped me (statistically) more than it has hurt me (in play testing).

In my heart, I'm looking to add exactly 1 copy of Mishra's Bauble to ensure, truly, as you described, I never hit a dead draw. But otherwise..

..i kinda think the list is air tight. Swapping any of the 3 to 4 copy cards in the list for any 1 of my SB artifacts is how I intend to run the deck. I guess it's easy to overlook when you're essentially dueling with yourself each time and choosing which one-of is gonna be mainline this time.

Tons of food for thought there.

Tl;DR: I made an assumption about my deck and it's sideboard where one would always choose whichever of the 3 artifacts they wanted for mainboard, prior to the duel, in place of any 1 copy of a card in the list that was not as helpful for playstyle, matchup, etc.

I.e., I tend to take out 1 copy of March of Burgeoning Life before pretty much anything else, in favor of the Shadowspear first.

Chino90 i also believe you could try play testing too! I'd be curious what others discover upon trying out my arrangements.

Thanks for returning to the list, and don't forget to upvote this literal primordial soup!

SniperFrog on Hiding cards from analytics

1 week ago

You edit CMC and Mana Cost in the Live Deck Editor Page. Scroll to the card you want to edit, click on it, then click the little wrench to access the menu where you can edit these values.

I have screenshots, but images need a hyperlink, which I'm not making any new accounts to upload and get them to work. I can send them to you if you need them.

Chino90 on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

Is it worth 4 copies of Urza´s saga in the mainboard just to search for the artifacts in the sideboard?

Ghool on Y'shtola and her machinations

1 week ago

It seems like there's not enough sorceries and instants to trigger the kitty. I'm not sure my build is "Amazing" but it may give you some ideas if you want to check it out.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/aww-pretty-kitty/

artcwolf22 on Hangry Bears ʕಠ_ಠʔ

1 week ago

I'm going to take a guess at your t2 win god hand:

• (3 card, 2 mana) on turn 1 Scythcat cub + elvish spirit guide + colored land.

• (2 cards, 1 mana) get another Hardened scale off elvish spirit guide.

• (1 card, 2 mana) for more optimal plays, cast urdnan using t1 land and spirit guide. Put 1+1 counter on cub, making it a 2+2.

• (1 card: fetchland) Use one fetchland for 2 scythcat cub triggers. Adding 2 +1/+1 counters on first, making it a 2+4.

• go to combat. If using urdnan, crack fetchland to double cub to 2+8+1 = l7 double strike trample for game.

You just need 8 perfect cards. 1 cub, 1 hardened scales, 2 fetchlands, 3 spirit guides, and 1 urdann.

Warjac on List of Bugs and Feature …

1 week ago

Feature Request: Instead of just showing decks by name and author with the mana wheel perhaps we can use the chosen image of the deck with the mana wheel in the bottom corner of the image.

ThePenguinMilitia on Green Eggs and Slam [PRIMER]

1 week ago

pie

xjewgambitx on Card creation challenge

1 week ago

Normandy SR-2

Legendary Artifact- Vehicle

Crew 2

Flying, Ward

When Normandy SR-2 enters the battlefield, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature cards from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

As long as Normandy SR-2 is crewed, creatures you control have hexproof and can't be blocked by creatures with power 3 or less.

3/5

Create a card based on the rabbit from Monty Python (either Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Monty Python Spamalot)

Swebb87 on Sagas?!?? Yojimbo & Lilysplash mentor

1 week ago

Thanks both massively appreciated the answers. Completely makes sense about the only as a sorcery bit of text on Lilysplash. Great to know in general!!

nawj on Braids, Unbanned

1 week ago

I made a French EDH deck of Braids years ago that I optimized for getting the most sac fodder per mana. It was a fun project even though I didn't play it very often. A lot of what I had in there is in your deck, but some stuff I also used was: 2for1: Blood Fountain Flayer Husk Nested Shambler Shambling Ghast 2for2: Carrier Thrall Dire Fleet Hoarder Doomed Dissenter Myr Sire 3for2: Servo Schematic

For some unconventional token generators, I also used The Underworld Cookbook, Forsworn Paladin and Cryptbreaker. As a gravehate option I ran a copy of Rotten Reunion for the incidental token it creates.

Balaam__ on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

Just read through it, probably as you wrote that lol. Yes this is quite nice!

Andramalech on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

Balaam__ I feel confident in the description now. I hope it lives up to your standards, and that the deck playstyle is easy to navigate. Looking forward to your feedback. Cheers!

edit: literally within seconds of posting this comment, you upvoted. I'm cackling.

Andramalech on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

Commander_Olim and KBK7101, thanks for the upvotes, cheers!

KingOriMoonstone on Burn Me, Like One of …

1 week ago

Gonna work on land balance when I finish the other 60. What are some swaps I can do in my maybes? Anything I just didn't include, but absolutely should?

Help me out~!

Andramalech on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

legendofa could not for the life of me remember Cling to Dust, so I super appreciate that commentary. Gaining 3 life from the exile and potentially scaling this at 4 mana again makes it very consistent, and very interesting in my opinion. Way less likely to use the Whip of Erebos because of mana value concerns.

For now, I'm gonna leave it maybeboard until I can test play it later today. I was thinking CTD would likely be in the same spot as Scavenging Ooze.

I greatly appreciate the commentary, don't forget to upvote if you believe in my space boogeyman!

FormOverFunction on Why is Archenemy Not Popular?

1 week ago

I like mtg variants as a general rule. Mtg is such a complex game that it provides a LOT of avenues to approach it, and that’s really interesting to me. I really only play commander any more, so all of this is coming from that perspective. Planechase is not something I usually jump at the opportunity to play because it falls just short of what I think it could be. My thinking is that it’s regular magic with a dose of disruptive influence added, which I feel is something the normal commander decks should be doing already (and I take every opportunity to do so). If planechase was just a little more focused on the planes it would hit bigger. Archenemy is closer to the mark, and (though I’ve never done it) conspiracy is close too, but I feel like they’re still falling short. It’s going to change when they try to make more of an rpg-style game that uses decks as the functional piece rather than dice. The old shandalaar video game was close to this as well, as you made your character/deck as you played, but I think that was also a little off the mark (though still EXTREMELY enjoyable). I think when they realize that D&D and MtG are the peanut butter and chocolate that people love, we’ll end up with a peanut butter cup of a game that will hit pretty hard. I’m looking forward to it.

legendofa on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

If burn/RDW/heavy aggro is a consistent problem, would something like Cling to Dust (choice of life gain or draw) or Whip of Erebos (lifelink + recursion) help?

Coward_Token on In the Grip of the …

1 week ago

Gigadrowse

tetsuothecat on Scion of the Ur-Dragon: Every. …

1 week ago

I used to run scion from the early days of commander out until right before the pandemic then retired it. So couldnt help but give my two cents :) great work!

Reanimate could help IMO or something along the 'cheap single target recursion' line of cards and a Show and Tell because what you drop should be much better than whatever they have... especially if its a Dracogenesis. These would be the big suggestions.

Something I used to be fond of was See Beyond and/or just Frantic Search, however, I was a bit deeper into the reanimate game I think for strategy. The first was useful to ensure I was able to put something back into the deck if needed, the other for a free draw 2, pitch 2.

Herd Heirloom could be useful, trample on a rock is interesting. Steely Resolve helped me a lot for protection and it doesn't look like you're targeting your own stuff too much. I would also suggest Despark as part of your removal package as this game gravitates HARD at 4 CMC or Grasp of Fate because why take from 1 person at 3 mana when you can take from everyone at 3 mana, but that depends on your meta.

Andramalech on Cosmic Charybdis

1 week ago

Chino90 I appreciate you checking out the list and providing some feedback.

• Doomsday won't be used because of legality reasons, but just to illustrate the whole in that, it doesn't provide the goyf with Trample.

• Valentin, Dean of the Vein  ^Flip exiles your opponents stuff. Not your own, so while full of utility and providing a body in response, it doesn't start my game plan on the right foot.

• Leyline of the Void is efficient if you can self mill fast enough, but that creates a list built to combo and prioritize the exiling/milling in the deck. If that's the case, we miss the fundamental goal of the deck- to swing out with a Trample gifted Cosmogoyf. I have some dialogue detailing this in the deck description.

Lastly I wanted to express gratitude for your recommendation and thank you for stopping by. I look forward to seeing you on other lists in the future.

DaveDoesMagic on QUICK FIRE

1 week ago

Hey all, how can i make this deck better

Optimator on I Just Want to Watch …

1 week ago

Or just classic Chaos Warp

Optimator on I Just Want to Watch …

1 week ago

I would remove Grip of Chaos. It is profoundly unfun. It's the #1 card that gives chaos decks a bad name. Perhaps replace it with Share the Spoils? Or anything, really. More card advantage with Wild Wasteland?

Andromedus on Rebecca “Don't Mess with Me” …

1 week ago

Love this. Nature's Chosen is one of my favorite cards ever and deserves to see legacy play. Incredible art.

pigeonmonarchishuman on 18 Pack Pull LEB Deck

1 week ago

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NV_1980 on Boarder Patrol

1 week ago

Gotta love Arcades! Some fun ideas:

1. Bar the Door/Tower Defense: they won't see this one coming.
2. Fell the Mighty/Wave of Reckoning: one-sided creature-wipes.
3. Meekstone: will hurt your opponents a lot (at least much more than it will hurt you).
4. Tree of Redemption: massive defender with a neat utility life-gain trick that can help in case you're being whittled down by your opponents.

Have fun with this brew!

NV_1980 on Mardu Angels

1 week ago

The curve issues you've mentioned don't seem that big a deal. I play-tested this setup just now ten times, to get a good sampling. In 8 out of 10 cases, I could cast the first (powerful) angel by turn 4; in 6 of these cases even as early as turn 3. In terms of fun recommendations, I could see Sunblast Angel fitting well in here; basically surprise opponents who attacked this round of turns by destroying their armies and then use Tariel to take your pick from them.

Neotrup on Sagas?!?? Yojimbo & Lilysplash mentor

1 week ago

I believe something was missed here. Rhadamanthus's answer is generally correct about Sagas and Summon: Yojimbo, however don't work for Lilysplash Mentor as its activated ability specifies "Activate only as a sorcery." This means you need to wait for your main phase, the lore counter to be added, and it's ability to fully resolve before you get to use it. If you want to use it before the fourth counter is added, you'll need to activate the ability the same turn that the third counter gets added, missing out on creating the treasures. In order to get the interaction you want, you'll need an ability without the sorcery speed restriction, like that of Emiel the Blessed.

Swyvern on FASTER FASTER FASTER!

1 week ago

Consider maybe Amulet of Vigor

NV_1980 on Ok, Now Kill Yourself

1 week ago

Including a few recursion resources allows one to benefit from the death-triggers of certain creatures even more. Some great examples you could consider on that front would be cards like Athreos, God of Passage, Celestine, the Living Saint, Liesa, Forgotten Archangel, Luminous Broodmoth and Sun Titan. Including Drivnod, Carnage Dominus increases the amount of death triggers even more.

Recursion options provides more incentive to include cards that make death happen as it were, to profit from sacrifices. This could include cards like Ashnod's Altar, Attrition, Hell's Caretaker, Phyrexian Altar, Priest of Forgotten Gods or Warren Soultrader.

Have fun with this brew!

legendofa on Why is Archenemy Not Popular?

1 week ago

It's got kind of a niche popularity. I don't think many actively dislikes Archenemy, but the number of people who are just kind of neutral on it heavily outnumber the people who would go out of their way to play it.

Why is it not more popular? If I had to make a couple of guesses:

• It requires an outside deck. There are apps to simulate the Archenemy deck, but not everyone will be interested in downloading even a free app to play a format when they could just play instead. If people expect to play constructed Magic, they're definitely going to bring at least one Magic deck, but most people don't have a stack of Schemes readily at hand.

• It hasn't been pushed by WotC. Back in ye olde dayes around 2010, there was a new casual product coming out every summer. Archenemy and Planechase were less popular than Commander, so WotC focused on the best-selling product, creating a self-reinforcing loop--people wanted more Commander sets, so WotC made more Commander sets, so people wanted even more Commander sets. If WotC decided to enforce sales of one of the other products, we could be getting a couple of new Planechase planes or story beats as Archenemy schemes instead of Commander sets.

• It can be unbalanced. I've had Archenemy games that were decided by the first or second Scheme, in both directions. If the Archenemy gets too slow of a start, they get dog piled. If they get too fast of a start, at least one "hero" gets booted and there's nothing they can do about it. Uncontrollable randomness can affect the outcome, and while many people are okay with that, many people aren't.

If somebody offered me an Archenemy game at my LGS, I'd probably accept. It's been a long time since I played, and it can be a lot of fun with the right group. But it's not for everyone, and I guess WotC believes it just doesn't have enough of a following to regularly produce it, when other products are more universally popular. Maybe it was just luck of the draw for which product took over, maybe Archenemy's literal extra baggage slowed it down, but it just never really took hold.