Apprentice Wizard

Creature — Human Wizard

{U}, {T}: Gain {C}{C}{C}.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (33)

king-saproling on i like draw card

3 weeks ago

Looks good. Personally I would make these swaps:

Kefnet the Mindful -> Apprentice Wizard
Teferi, Master of Time -> Vodalian Hexcatcher
Lorthos, the Tidemaker -> Ominous Seas
Stormtide Leviathan -> Atemsis, All-Seeing
Tidal Force -> Dramatic Reversal
Arcanis the Omnipotent -> Universal Automaton
solemn simulacrum -> Unstable Obelisk
burnished hart -> Relic of Legends
steel hellkite -> Martyr of Frost
Master of Winds -> Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip
cloudkin seer -> Voidmage Prodigy

DreadKhan on Sauron The Grixis Lord

6 months ago

If you want to keep your budget fairly low, there are the signets (Rakdos Signet, Izzet Signet, and Dimir Signet) and the talismans (Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Indulgence, and Talisman of Creativity) to start with, but Grixis has access to a really good new option, Relic of Sauron, which I think is great. I'm not sure if it's really a good card, but Firemind Vessel exists. There is also Myriad Landscape, which can find a colour you don't have yet (and gets 2 of that colour). An option if you keep your fairly high (which is fine btw) land count would be to replace a land with Temple of the False God.

Since you actually need to ramp a few times from 3 mana to cast Sauron, you might run something weird like Dreamscape Artist, that can help get you to Sauron mana to get your deck online, including fixing your mana. It's incredibly janky, but Apprentice Wizard can help cast Sauron's colourless cost.

I could be wrong, but I think Arcane Adaptation is usually better than Xenograft. I think Maskwood Nexus is also better. I think you could find much better cards than Ugluk, including many that are lower to the ground. Foray of Orcs is not very high impact for the mana when there are cards that can just remove any creature for less mana, or cards like Fateful Showdown for similar. I would even play Fire Covenant over it. Torment of Golum sounds to me like an outright bad card, ymmv, but I think you can find something that works similar for less. I'm also unsure if Surrounded by Orcs is worth casting, adding only 3 power isn't very impressive, and if the army dies you lose the buff forever.

You can certainly shave some lands if you add more ramp sources, though I wouldn't go below 36 lands with a 6 mana Commander that needs 3 colours to cast. You can sneak that lower with a better mana base, but that increases the cost. If you lower your land count to 36, you could also look at the Guild Bounce lands, Dimir Aqueduct, Rakdos Carnarium and Izzet Boilerworks, each of these is a dual land that is cheap and helps you hit more land drops. They aren't great if you have lots of 'Enters tapped' lands, but without mostly Basics they are solid in a 3 colour deck. Guildless Commons also exists, but in a 3 colour deck I'd be more leery of it.

DreadKhan on The Quackening

1 year ago

I have a Quest for Ula's Temple deck which does some similar things, I liked Dreamscape Artist because it can reshuffle your library as needed, incase you don't have a relevant creature to work with on top. It's technically only 1 mana and a card to Harrow (you get back 2 untapped lands, so it can also helping mana fixing) Blue, and I could be wrong but I think your Commander wants the odd Discard outlet too. A worse (but still potentially useful) piece of Blue ramp is Apprentice Wizard, it's not as good as Dreamscape, it's like Worn Powerstone, which is a good rock if you want bigger ramp to potentially cast a big creature a bit sooner. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus are big ramp rocks with decent ratios. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers are pretty good together, if you have a lot of devotion to a colour Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx can help, Deserted Temple can untap any land that makes extra mana. Less rampy and more of a big Scry effect, Soothsaying is a neat card if you care about your deck order. Scroll Rack is better but costs more.

Just a general idea, you might throw in things like Reconnaissance Mission, Bident of Thassa, and Coastal Piracy along with some Unblockable or Shadow creatures (Thalakos and Dauthi are the Blue and Black tribes). You can also throw in stuff like Sword of the Animist, Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip, Prying Blade, Goldvein Pick, Grim Hireling, and any other attack payoffs you can find to generate more value over time. I understand you want a sea-monster theme, but you might want a way to draw some cards/get in some chip damage to soften people up. The only drawback to Shadows is that they can't chump block. If you really want your evasive creatures to be able to chump, there are some small flyers like Spectral Sailor and Thousand-Faced Shadow that have other upsides, these are risk free but are way less evasive than Shadows.

On that note, if you're worried about getting attacked you might look at Propaganda, War Tax, Flood, and Fatespinner are all great ways to make you hard to attack. Mass Diminish, Polymorphist's Jest, Sudden Spoiling, AEtherize, Aetherspouts are all great cards for people to fear.

Callous Oppressor is a funny repeatable theft effect, Ritual of the Machine and Helm of Possession can both steal stuff and are great with tokens, Thieving Skydiver can steal an artifact creature fwiw, Sower of Temptation is a so-so theft effect that shines bright if you can flicker or bounce it, Thalakos Deceiver is probably way better since he permanently steals whatever and can be reanimated, Inevitable Betrayal and Bribery are both pretty sweet.

The biggest (and perhaps best) theft effects are Mass Manipulation and Cultural Exchange, exchange requires bodies but can also be used aggressively to just ruin two players' boards.

Inkwell Leviathan, Lochmere Serpent, Spawning Kraken, Stormtide Leviathan, and Wrexial, the Risen Deep are some relevant creatures I use, some are better than others but there is nothing as bad as Sea Serpent or Bog Serpent, both cards I love but don't use.

If you like Whelming Wave, you might like Spectral Deluge as well.

Hope some of this helps, Big Dimir is a fun deck!

alulien on Wizards' Dark Ritual [Wizard Tribal]

1 year ago

Thanks KongMing! Inalla is the cheapest Eminence commander but really cool, the value her tokens can generate is absurd!

I think Disappearing Act for Mana Leak makes sense - it's a 2 for 1 with all the ETB effects and removes the conditional part of the counterspell. Great rec!

I'm not sold on Apprentice Wizard though... I definitely see the ramp appeal but late-game it's a dead draw. Something to consider for sure.

Thanks again!

KongMing on Wizards' Dark Ritual [Wizard Tribal]

1 year ago

Oh, and maybe Disappearing Act over Arcane Denial or Mana Leak?

Also, how about Apprentice Wizard for ramp? Copying it turns {U}{U} into {6}.

Epicurus on Early Years Lingo

1 year ago

I actually don't remember the term "Mana Dork" being used back in the day. We would refer to Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves collectively as "Mana Elves," and Birds of Paradise as " Mana Birds," but way back then those might have been all there was. Yeah, you had Apprentice Wizard in 4th Edition, but nobody really used that.

king-saproling on Bounce n draw with a special lil falcon

2 years ago

Cool deck! You might like these: Drift of Phantasms, Merchant Scroll, Step Through, Vedalken AEthermage, Apprentice Wizard, Springleaf Drum, Sea Gate Oracle, Augur of Bolas, Repulse, Drag Under, Capsize, Salvager of Secrets, Mnemonic Wall, Scrivener, Rush of Knowledge.

Also I noticed you're running Treasure Cruise, which is banned in pauper. If your group doesn't care about the banlist, you might also consider running Peregrine Drake as it combos with things like Displace + Archaeomancer.

ConsumingKiribo on Nicol Bolas, the Ravager commander

3 years ago

First of all: I'm not really the best person to give feedback on a type of deck that I've never played. I mostly mastered Esper colors, but red is a bad color for me to use.

Next, there are some basic things that a commander deck needs. You need Lands, Removal, Ramp, Draw, and Wipes.

EDHrec has recommendations for your specific commander and it's common playstyles. The site's flaws are any new cards that have only recently came out, and you might find some really good cards that are either relatively new or as obscure as f** due to the fact that the site is based on popularity.

Scryfall can find obscure or new cards perfect for your new commander deck.

As for the basic tools a commander deck needs, it all comes down to 36-37 lands (these need to generate mana. However, some have certain effects and count as spells), 6-8 removal spells (cards that counter spells or destroy permanents), 5 board wipes (Example is Wrath of God and Doomskar. Other options for Grixis are Damnation, In Garruk's Wake, AEtherize, Cyclonic Rift, Fade Away, Devastation, which you should NOT run in a casual deck with casual friends, I REPEAT NO IT WIPES LANDS DO-, and Blasphemous Act), 10 draw spells (Read the Bones, Notion Rain, for decks with unblockable creatures Sygg, River Cutthroat and Bident of Thassa, though there are probably other forms of repeatable draw found in your colors), and 10 forms of ramp. These can take the form of mana dorks which are creatures that generate more mana, like Llanowar Elves, or a blue version of it can be Apprentice Wizard, mana rocks, which are the second safest form of ramp and are most common. Dimir Signet, and Rakdos Signet, and also Izzet Signet are both really good. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet are found in ZendiCommander decks, or Zendikar Commander decks. Land ramp is the safest form of ramping and is most commonly found in Green, but Blue can do it as well due to the release of Planar Chaos. Expect more land ramp in other colors soon with the release of Time Spiral Remastered. Dreamscape Artist is that one single land ramp found in blue.

I recommend this video right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jO2fmsef0g

These are the absolute basics of a casual commander deck. Have fun!