Academy Ruins

Legendary Land

: Gain .

, : Put target artifact card from your graveyard on top of your library.

Discussion (46)

DawnsRayofLight on Breya treasures

1 month ago

You could run some Threats still in line with your them:

Wurmcoil Engine

Kaldra Compleat

Karn, the Great Creator: I love this tool box card but it depends on how people feel about the 10 card sideboard, it isn't officially allowed exactly but cEDH may change that. you can fill the board (10 is generally the accepted number I have seen for the "side") with situationally useful artifacts.

The only other thing I would think of is maybe considering a bit more control like

Dovin's Veto

Render Silent

Counterflux

Swan Song

to give a bit more protection for your strats

Rakdos's Return is always funny but may or may not work here

Sevinne's Reclamation could give some recursion Academy Ruins and Trading Post Too

Aetherflux Reservoir and Time Sieve with Thopter Assembly if you want some combo wombo

Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast seems to fit the theme

I am not a fan of the wellsprings, they do fit the them somewhat but can seem dead at times.

I had a couple of others that were in mind but lost them, I will comment if I think of them

Ector on Galea, the Equipmonger

2 months ago

The Ramp, the Lands and Topdeck Manipulation

The major goal of every good Galea deck is the right method of ramp and topdeck manipulation. Every time you see a card that Galea cannot play, you should have a way to change the situation somehow. And there are two primary ways to achieve that:

1. Direct manipulation. Scroll Rack , Sylvan Library , Soldevi Excavations , Vantress Gargoyle and Jace, the Mind Sculptor directly manipulate with your topdeck, allowing you to gain card advantage. Let's look at Scroll Rack for example. If you have say three Auras/Enchantments in your hand that you can play this turn, and your topdeck isn't Aura or Equipment. You just draw three cards, put your Auras/Equipments on topdeck and play all them, actually drawing three cards for 1 mana!

2. Fetching lands. As long as Galea cannot play lands from top of your library, you should fetch lands as much as you can. This reduces the number of lands in your library (and the chance to see a land on your topdeck), and allows you to shuffle your library. We have six lands that fetch the other lands, and one of them ( Thawing Glaciers ) can fetch multiple times. We also have Sword of the Animist and Elvish Reclaimer that fetch lands repeatedly, and Expedition Map .

The Ramp strategy of this deck uses "the best of all worlds" principle: the best creatures, the best artifacts and the best Aura ( Wild Growth ). Most of the Ramp cards cost 1 mana, but there are few 0-cost and 2-cost cards. Why don't I use more Auras? Because creatures and artifacts are more efficient, and I need Ramp prior to playing Galea. Why do I use mana dorks? There are two reasons: I need early targets for my Equipment, and I want to sacrifice them later to Skullclamp .

This deck has three ways of fetching NON-basic lands: Elvish Reclaimer , Expedition Map and Tolaria West - and if you have Academy Ruins , you can recycle Expedition Map to fetch more lands. One of the best targets for the fetching is Urza's Saga , which can create a giant token and fetch Skullclamp or Expedition Map . Another very important target is Glacial Chasm , which can allow you to survive and grab victory even in a grave sutuation. Of course, Academy Ruins and Hall of Heliod's Generosity are also the popular fetch targets.

The Aura Selection

Most Auras in this deck steal or spoil enemy creatures (especially Commanders). It's hard to win when your Commander is stolen or converted to Insect :) There are only two Auras that should be played on your creatures: Mantle of the Ancients and Unquestioned Authority . Most of the time they are played via Sovereigns of Lost Alara : you attack, then fetch one of them from your deck, and, in case of the Mantle, also play all Equips from your graveyard.

The Hidden Gems

Conqueror's Flail prohibits opponents from playing spells during your turn. This allows you to play all your stuff without pesky counterspells and attack safely. It's very important for this deck.

Moonsilver Spear and Seraphic Greatsword create 4/4 flying Angels. If you have both, you can create enough blockers that can eventually kill somebody.

Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip should be transformed into a land that provides three mana of any color. It's a great Ramp, especially if you consider that Sword of Feast and Famine and Treachery untap your lands. With a bit of luck, you can even create two Construct tokens with Urza's Saga !

Fractal Harness is the easiest way of creating an enormous creature. It will grow very fast, and Belt of Giant Strength may give it +10/+10! If you get both in play, follow the "Trident Punch" path and look for Surestrike Trident .

Umbral Mantle doesn't have a lot of good targets in this deck: there are no creatures with powerful "Tap:" abilities. But you can steal them! :) Talking seriously, the Mantle is used to untap our Ultron after attacking. I am not a big fan of using Galea for this purpose: it's better not to put all the eggs into one basket. Plus, the Mantle makes a great combo with Surestrike Trident .

Shimmer Dragon is really great for this deck. It flies and almost always has Hexproof. It provides insane amount of cards. And it is much better material for Ultron than Galea IMHO. Most of the time you would need just one Scytheclaw or Kaldra Compleat on it to deal very serious damage.

Fierce Guardianship means that you always might have a counterspell :)

Thassa, God of the Sea is very helpful for two reasons: it can make your creature unblockable (even a tiny Elf with the Scytheclaw becomes a very dangerous threat!) and it provides a free Scry 1 every turn (see above on topdeck manipulation). Still, you have a chance of turning her into creature, since there are several permanents with UU in their casting cost. Having an indestructible creature is always nice!

wallisface on Factorio

2 months ago

RNR_Gaming I can typically get ballista back with Academy Ruins or Buried Ruin , but there’s no real reason for me to play it on 0, or play it at all, till the combo is ready. I won’t Whir for it.

Urza, Lord High Artificer is a strong card, but there’s not a lot of room for cards to drop here, and he acts as more of an alternate wincon than i’d like - he validates the opponents killspells too much. I have been looking at Urza's Saga though, and’ll prolly look to include a few of those into the deck.

multimedia on Hercules23

2 months ago

Hey, I tried to post a comment at MoxField, but it didn't work because I think the comment was too long. I kind of have a problem with long comments :)

Instead I'll post the comment about your Scarab deck here.

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Nice updated version of Scarab. To answer your question because you have Phyrexian you could cut Ashnods. Although, I don't think I would since Ashnods is better than a few cards here because it's a combo piece and the ramp can help to pay for Scarab's embalm. Dementia being a win condition for opponent mill or repeatable opponent mill throughout the game is nice, but it's dangerous as self-mill enabler because you risk milling nonZombie combo pieces which you currently can't reanimate or recur. Honestly, I would play all three of the combo artifact sac outlets because of so much self-mill you don't have control of.

Because of self-mill Academy Ruins would be worth including to recur Phyrexian or save Phyrexian when in graveyard from being exiled. Since it's a land it doesn't take a valuable deck spot for this effect. One of the main reasons to play Phyrexian Reclamation is it can save creatures especially Gravecrawler and Wonder at instant speed from being exiled by graveyard hate which can be a big problem. Mystic Sanctuary is helpful since it's an Island for Wonder and as a bonus it can potentially recur an instant or sorcery which is good with self-mill.

• Ashnod's Altar --> Necromantic Selection
• Academy Ruins --> Temple of the False God
• Phyrexian Reclamation --> Training Grounds
• Mystic Sanctuary --> 1x Island

Temple of the False God is not a good land here because without Urborg it's unable to tap for mana until your turn five or six and that's if you make all your land drops. Necromantic Selection is a high CMC card that you don't really need because you have Kindred Dominance which is the same mana cost, but more powerful board wipe effect especially with Zombie tokens.

Training Grounds can be a powerful card for combos, but it's not doing that here therefore it doesn't do enough only affecting three creatures: Scarab, Cryptbreaker, Accursed. I don't think it's worth taking a deck spot for Grounds just to reduce the cost of Scarab or be able to reduced cost of activated abilities of opponent's creature you may embalm. Ashnods mimics what Grounds does by sacing a creature you make two colorless which can be used to help to pay, better yet to cast or activate anything else.

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By increasing your budget then you could add other black tutors and more tutors are very helpful when you want an artifact to combo. Diabolic Intent and/or Profane Tutor are two more two drop tutors to consider adding. Consider more tutors that can get Wonder or Gravecrawler such as Entomb or Unmarked Grave ?

• Diabolic Intent or Profane Tutor --> Fact or Fiction
• Entomb or Unmarked Grave --> Go for the Throat

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Shambling Ghast is a new one drop Zombie for combo with Rooftop + Havengul because when it dies it creates a treasure. With any sac outlet such as more convenient Carrion Feeder Ghast mimics Phyrexian Altar . With Rooftop, Feeder + Ghast can replace Phyrexian and being able to remove one nonZombie combo piece from the combo with Havengul is a huge upgrade. Ghast + Phyrexian combos with Havengul without needing Rooftop for infinite casts/dies/leave graveyard of Ghast which can make Havengul combo faster not needing six drop Rooftop.

• Shambling Ghast --> Solemn Simulacrum

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Acererak the Archlich is another new Zombie for combo with Rooftop since you don't have to enter Tomb of Annihilation dungeon instead you can enter one of the other two dungeons which results in bouncing Acererak back to your hand to cast again for free and repeat. Instead of venturing into Annihilation you can enter one of the other two dungeons and go to their rooms for value as many times equal to cards you have in your library. Lost Mine of Phandelver has Dark Pool room which as long as you have more cards in your library than each opponent has life can be a true win condition.

The way the Dungeons work is once you have completed one you can then right away venture back into that same dungeon again which lets you repeatedly enter Phandelver and it's rooms. In this combo with Phandelver each card in your library equals in order: 1 scry, 1 treasure, gain 1 life and each opponent loses 1 life, draw a card, that's powerful. Storeroom room instead of Dark Pool room can make Scarab huge for a big Commander damage attack.

Acererak the Archlich --> Loyal Subordinate

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Pair Gravecrawler with a sac outlet such as Feeder and it's ability to leave your graveyard with Tormod, the Desecrator for another repeatable Zombie token source to create a 2/2 Zombie for one black mana as many times as black mana you have to really fuel Scarab's upkeep trigger. This combo makes infinite tapped 2/2 Zombies with Phyrexian + Gravecrawler that forces an opponent to wrath the board or you win at your next upkeep. Tormod also triggers when you embalm your own creatures with Scarab.

• Tormod, the Desecrator --> Overseer of the Damned

Zombie Master is a Zombie evasion source, pair it with Urborg. Wonder will be a target for graveyard hate when it's in your graveyard therefore having other evasion sources especially from a Zombie is helpful.

• Zombie Master --> Liliana's Mastery

lagotripha on Thrasta and Erayo's brunch

2 months ago

With the fetches already mostly there, splashing for more dedicated removal shouldn't be a massive oppertunity cost.

In terms of options for the deck, I'd look at some classic decks built around Erayo, Soratami Ascendant  ^Flip

A blue splash, to gain access to him and Academy Ruins would turn this from a '1 stompy guy' to 'I'm threatening to lock you out of the game', and open up a lot of artifact synergies. Cards like Engineered Explosives become devastating repeatable answers, while access to cascade with Shardless Agent makes the multiple spells much easier.

In terms of smaller changes to the deck, Beast Within is almost always a better generic answer than kenriths - also being an answer to enchantments etc. Eldritch Evolution lets frogmite become big creatures with litte fuss if you want a second janky combo.

If you wanted to lean in a more aggressive direction, Talara's Battalion and Reckless Bushwhacker have been a thing in the past.

DarkMagician on Blue players

3 months ago

Mindslaver you. On your turn i tap all of your mana and waste all of your cards then activate my Academy Ruins putting Mindslaver back on top of my deck. Rinse and repeat.

zAzen7977 on

4 months ago

Hey Mcat1999, sweet build! I’m no voltron expert, but I think you’re on to something here. Like you said, your life gain potential is enormous with lifelink and doublestrike. I think the deck is solid as-is, but if you want to make some adjustments for speed, I humbly offer these suggestions. I don’t know what your budget is like, so I’m making general recommendations regardless of price.

I know you mentioned you like drawing into things and would rather not run tutors, but if you choose to run Enlightened Tutor , Mystical Tutor , Stoneforge Mystic , Steelshaper's Gift , and/or Open the Armory , then you will significantly increase your consistency. It matters when you’re dealing with other decks running tutors that can win by turns 2-5 (like my K’rrik combo deck). And you’re already running fetchlands, which essentially have the same function - so why not run tutors?

I highly suggest running Jeweled Lotus to help cast Ishai on turn 1 - plus it can help mid-game to recast a commander if they get killed, which is likely to happen at least once per game. Other ramp artifacts which will increase your speed are Lotus Petal (one free colored mana always helps), Mox Opal (since you are already running lots of artifacts), and Mox Amber (since you have two commanders and a handful of other legendaries, it will help ramp into your other spells mid-game). Other options are Mana Vault and Grim Monolith , which only produce colorless mana but can really help cast an artifact or big spell in a pinch. I run all of the above in my commander decks, and I always find a reason to use them, even if I can’t use them immediately when drawn.

Academy Ruins or Buried Ruin will help recycle your ramp artifacts or destroyed equipment.

(Continued...)

A55Destroyer69 on The Marit Lage Life

5 months ago

honestly going RG base with a WU splash is what I find to be the best. You have access to things like Academy Ruins and Hall of Heliod's Generosity to get back your milled moxen or Exploration s as you need.

Anyway, I would argue that, even with no black mana in the deck, that Smokestack is much less powerful than Nether Void in most matchups. Dredge will still function, of course, but will not be able to cast too many spells. Even something like Sphere of Resistance is a better alternative. The worst matchup for lands is Storm, so making them have to start sacrificing their lands after they've probably already gone off and killed you seems pretty impractical. Sphere of Resistance makes them need to deal with it before even thinking of going off, since the entire power of storm bases itself around making enough mana to go off, rather than making overly excessive amounts, so leeching 1 mana per spell seems really strong (and it is in practise, too)

I also find that 4 Dark Depths and 4 Thespian's Stage are both sort of overkill, as when you're functioning fully you're effectively drawing 3 cards per turn with loam putting the top 3 cards of your deck into your bin. I do find that Field of the Dead is a really good alternative too, and even against 1 lands spy or manaless dredge or whatnot you can still make a board with it - wasteland your own things and replay them through the power of loam. It's really sketchy, but if that's all you can do then so be it. It does give you quite a boardstate quite quickly in any case.

Propaganda is a much worse version of Glacial Chasm , and yes glacial chasm has a cumulative upkeep cost, but if you have loam and Exploration available then you can just sit and control the board with Punishing Fire s to chip down your opponent and their boardstate. If you have another exploration out then you can advance your own boardstate althewhile too.