Alchemist's Vial

Artifact

When Alchemist's Vial enters the battlefield, draw a card.

{1}, {T}, Sacrifice Alchemist's Vial: Target creature can't attack or block this turn.

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
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

multimedia on

2 years ago

Hey, you're welcome. Good update.

You could cut one of the artifacts that draw when it ETB such as Alchemist's Vial since you have a lot of them and replace it with Knight of the White Orchid . It's also helpful for color fixing that Orchid can get Plains dual lands. I would play both Solemn and Orchid to give you more sources of ramp that are not artifacts. Relying primarily on artifacts for ramp can be problematic where as land ramp is more difficult to disrupt because an opponent has to remove a land to stop ramp. Some color combinations of course have to rely on all mana rocks for ramp, but Azorius is not one of them.

Felidar Guardian is a budget card that gives you another blink of any permanent you control after Brago blinks it. There's also cards that combo with Guardian for infinite effects which could be a direction to go, more blink combos, if you wanted to increase the power level of your deck.

Iron_eye2 on Blue Steel Affinity

2 years ago

Thoughtcast could be a good include for drawing cards instead of Alchemist's Vial . also a couple of Ornithopter s could be good for upping the low cost artifact count.

garrukhunter98 on all my homies hate mana

2 years ago

I don't think this works the way you think this does. Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient works only with activated abilities that aren't mana abilities, so the cards in this deck it actually works with are Alchemist's Vial , Buzzing Whack-a-Doodle , the equip activation of Adventuring Gear (though that would be useless, as it would only equip to one creature), Metalwork Colossus (though this is not an ability you would want to copy as it would fizzle since it would already be in your hand from the graveyard), and Arcbound Reclaimer which is a great ability to activate since it is basically free recursion.

I think you are confusing activated abilities and triggered abilities. You want abilities that have some sort of cost. Pentavus would be great for the deck.

hejtmane on Non-Creature Naya Card Draw?

2 years ago

You could go with what they call eggs

Mishra's Bauble or Urza's Bauble delayed draw but the cmc cost is right

Chromatic Sphere or Chromatic Star draw and color fixing

Other options Conjurer's Bauble Spare Supplies Golden Egg Guild Globe Elsewhere Flask Ichor Wellspring Alchemist's Vial

Mazemind Tome gives you some extra draw or scry

Then you have top deck manipulation stuff but can cost $$$$ Sensei's Divining Top Scroll Rack card swap I guess is the best thing to call it

When i used eggs in my mono red I went with ones I could get extra benefit from

There are more but you get the idea

Joe_Ken_ on Jhoira artifact storm

3 years ago

I would maybe up lands to 35, but that's just me since it is the lowest I'm normally comfortable with going for lands.

Riddlesmith can help you dig through your deck faster when you cast artifact spells. Vedalken Archmage is also in the same boat with this.

Using cards like Rebuild and Retract with a lot of mana artifacts like Welding Jar , Paradise Mantle , Zuran Orb , Ornithopter , etc. will make a pretty insane near storm levels of card draw combo to just go digging through your entire deck. Other low or cmc artifacts can be used as well like Alchemist's Vial and other 'egg' cards.

SideBae on

4 years ago

So I'm kinda surprised no one has suggested this (apologies if someone did and I didn't notice while I looked at the other comments), but Skullclamp seems stupid-good with an X/1 token producer in the command zone.

I really like RNR_Gaming's comment. Retract and (especially) Paradoxical Outcome seem really powerful here. He gives good advice.

You may want to revisit your artifact-ramp suite. I see you've included the signets, but I think the talismans ( Talisman of Dominance , Talisman of Progress and Talisman of Hierarchy ) are probably better. You may want to run all three of both -- that's a call playtesting will help a lot with. In general, two-mana mana-rocks are a lot better than three- or four-mana rocks, and that rule is especially true with four-mana generals. (...because landing a rock turn two into a land-drop turn three means you're casting your general a turn early.)

Though it may go without saying, I feel like I should mention that tutors are good cards. If you have access, you should consider running Enlightened Tutor and/or Demonic Tutor . If not (or even if you do have access to the former and just want more tutors), consider Dark Petition , Diabolic Intent , Diabolic Tutor , Beseech the Queen and/or Lim-Dul's Vault . The more tutors you have, the more consistent your deck will be. More importantly (at least in my opinion), you have to have fewer redundant effects, since you'll just tutor a card when necessary. This frees up card slots for more powerful spells.

In a similar vein, I see you're running Cloudstone Curio . I've obviously never played your list, but intuition tells me that that card is pretty busted in this deck. I suggest you try running something like Whir of Invention to tutor it to the battlefield at instant speed. Also worth considering is Reshape or, if you have a few spare kidneys to sell, Transmute Artifact . Granted, this does not get you a cast-trigger for the Cloudstone Curio itself, but I think the effect more than makes up for that fact.

I feel like I suggest these in every blue-deck comment I make, but I really, really think Ponder , Preordain and (if you have fetches/other reliable shuffle effects) Brainstorm belong in every blue deck. They're just that good. Having one of them in your opening seven means that a borderline hand goes from OK to good pretty easily, since they'll dig you to land if that's what you need, or past land if you don't. Your Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds are good for shuffle, but I'd add two or three more fetch-type lands before I'd add Brainstorm .

I'm unsure of what your meta is like, but I think you may have luck running Ghostly Prison instead of Hissing Miasma . Unless you're facing something like a Splinter Twin combo-kill, I feel like having a second Propaganda -effect is a better deterrent for potential attackers. Worth noting is that if you don't want to run two Propaganda effects, I think Ghostly Prison is better than Propaganda itself since Ghostly Prison does not die to Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast .

I've always LOVED Tidespout Tyrant . You should consider a reanimation package, in order to turbo that mo' fo' out onto the field. Buried Alive or Entomb are good ways to put him in the graveyard, and running Animate Dead , Necromancy and/or Dance of the Dead will all bring him back while triggering your general.

Depending on how much mana you have access to in a typical game, you might want to think about a Words of Wind loop. ( Words of Wind has, since I first saw it, been one of my favorite cards.) If you pair it with a permanent you can trigger your general with that draws a card on ETB, you can make your opponents return their stuff all while netting faeries. Some such ETBers to consider: Ichor Wellspring , Alchemist's Vial , Baleful Strix and Disinformation Campaign . I especially like Disinformation Campaign .

Idk how many creatures you usually have on the field, but I have a feeling that Slate of Ancestry is worth running if you have 3+ creatures out on a routine basis.

Right. That's all I got. Good luck, man! Looks like a fun deck.

Alkadron on Mad Ratter

4 years ago

Very nice! I'm excited about this guy.

If this works correctly, you'll be pitching a lot of cards into your graveyard. That makes Magmatic Sinkhole and Harvest Pyre really good removal options.

Scourge Devil is also nice 'cause you can discard it while rummaging or looting, and still get some great value out of it later.

Psychotic Fury probably won't work out like you want it to, though. You have to rely on someone else to have a legal target for it. You're probably better off with something like Alchemist's Vial , Renegade Tactics , or Chromatic Sphere .

momikulski on Ramos commander

4 years ago

Darksteel Myr , Guardians of Meletis , and Workshop Assistant Are all cards that seem like they don’t really do good things for your dragons, they are good blockers at best, but they are going to be really low impact on the board and don’t really fit the theme. Some options for replacements are blockers that are less hardy but ramp you into your dragons faster like— Palladium Myr and Iron Myr . And if you’re looking for quicker ways to interact with the board I’d use something like Dragon Hatchling before I’d use the artifact dudes.

Alchemist's Vial and Explorer's Scope Seem not that great, mana rocks or permanents that aren’t lands, but give mana are super good for the high casting cost dragon archetype, but I’d go for some of the other ones like Fire Diamond , Hedron Archive , Darksteel Ingot , Dreamstone Hedron , Burnished Hart

Angel's Tomb Seems pretty mediocre, it makes a single angle, some of the time. Yeah it gets around board wipes like Wrath of God but there are cooler ways to get around that like Dragon Egg or cards that actually benefit from being blown up like Anger

Battle Hymn is only particularly good, when you have several creatures out. When you are running so many big creatures it is going to be tough to have a lot out. So I’d hesitate to use it here.

Tomb of the Spirit Dragon Is also not great, as you are only running a handful of colorless creatures, I’d probably use something like Temple of the False God over it.

Glimmerpost is only really useful in conjunction with Cloudpost , and even then I’d likely skip them in a format where you can only use one of each, they get powerful when you can run four copies of each in a deck.

Comet Storm Earthquake Pyrohemia and Hour of Devastation are all great for clearing out boards with a lot of stuff on it and since you’ll likely be trying to wipe out the game with a lot less creatures a lot of the time they’ll hurt your opponents way more than they hurt you. Relentless Assault is also just super good and cheap. You’ll also likely not have to deal with as many blockers as dragons fly, but a neat card to make your dragons more evasive and harder to chump block is Archetype of Aggression and also Goblin War Drums

Two cards that are likely out of budget, but are crazy good for the deck are Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and Zirilan of the Claw . And Since you are in Mono Red I would 100% switch to Lathliss, Dragon Queen