Arcane Lighthouse

Land

: Gain .

, : Until end of turn, creatures your opponents control lose hexproof and shroud and can't have hexproof or shroud.

Discussion (50)

StopShot on Counteracting large hexproof creatures.

1 month ago

The subject of this thread revolves around dealing with and counteracting against the commanders: Uril, the Miststalker, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Dragonlord Ojutai, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Thrun, the Last Troll as well as commanders that consistently or typically give themselves hexproof through various equipments/auras.

While it may not be the most prevalent strategy these types of commanders can be annoying to deal with. I'd like to create a discussion on what are the best ways to deal with these commanders. Given how niche these commanders can be, running cards that exclusively dedicate themselves to their removal may be detrimental to draw into when playing a game where none of your opponents run them. Therefore cards that can both combat massive hexproof creatures as well as still being useful to have if none of your opponents are playing with big hexproof creatures should be taken into consideration when deciding what is the "best" or "most practical" solution to combating hexproof strategies.

The first cards that come to mind are Arcane Lighthouse, Detection Tower, Bonds of Mortality, Shadowspear and Glaring Spotlight. These cards entirely dedicate themselves to combating hexproof strategies, and while this may be a detriment when used against non-hexproof strategies, these cards do lend themselves some extra utility. Arcane Lighthouse and Detection Tower can be seeded into your manabase so at worst they're just a Wastes however they can be more inefficient in comparison. Given that both are lands, tapping them costs you an extra mana resource effectively making their abilities cost to activate. Not only that, but they have no effect at stripping indestructible which can be a common keyboard which may be used alongside most hexproof strategies. Cards like Bonds of Mortality and Shadowspear cost only one to activate and they can bypass indestructible, however given they're not lands you have to dedicate a nonland slot in your deck to accommodate either of them which means taking out a card that may better synergize with your deck's main strategy in their place. They also lend themselves targets for counter spells and given hexproof decks contain white and/or green, artifact/enchantment removal will pose a high potential risk. This is all not to mention you still need to provide a removal spell in tandem with these cards in order to remove the threat.

Another solution is board wipes. Cards such as Wrath of God, Damnation, Day of Judgment, Supreme Verdict, Blasphemous Act, etc. Mass creature removal is incredibly strong given that its always relevant in most metas making it a highly flexible solution that isn't too narrow to rely upon. It's biggest drawback however is if the massive hexproof creature that needs to be dealt with has indestructible, totem armor or Gift of Immortality. Even a card such as Toxic Deluge can be a risk as you may have to pay a huge amount of life if the creature is incredibly big. Cyclonic Rift is another effective card. One thing to note about boardwipes are they affect the whole table which makes them also more likelier to be countered than by effects that impact a single individual.

A more narrow solution would be through damage prevention effects such as Story Circle, Forcefield, Runed Halo, Rune of Protection: White, etc. Given each card never "targets" they can be used to infinitely "Fog" a problem creature that you can't put up with. These effects are more narrow than boardwipes but broader than hexproof removal. Cards like these still run into problems with artifact/enchantment removal and they don't run enticing side effects such as drawing a card upon entering the battlefield like Bonds of Mortality or giving a creature lifelink and trample like Shadowspear, however you won't need to exhaust your removal spells to keep the large creature(s) either. In more broader metas such as combo, stax and prison, these effects may not be as useful however. More broader variants of these protection cards exist as Ensnaring Bridge, Divine Presence, Peacekeeper and Meekstone though these cards may make multiple opponents unhappy enough to remove them than the more narrower options.

The last effect used to combat large hexproof creatures is sacrifice effects such as: Fleshbag Marauder, Innocent Blood, Vona's Hunger, Liliana's Triumph, Doomfall etc. These effects can bypass not only hexproof but also indestructible, regenerate and totem armor. Their drawback lies in if the player with the large hexproof creature has any other creatures to sacrifice in their place. Because of this caveat this effect isn't too strong unless ran in multiples which can be difficult to commit to in a 100-card format. Instead selective sacrifice effects may be the best way to devote to this solution with cards like: Crackling Doom, Soul Shatter, Slaughter the Strong, Council's Judgment, Renounce the Guilds and Wing Shards. While these cards won't always guarantee the large hexproof creature will be removed, they provide a stronger case than not compared to most traditional sacrifice removal.

Lastly there are counter spells to remove hexproof creatures. While they may be the best all purpose solution they can be rendered ineffective if a Cavern of Souls or some other can not be countered effect is in place. With exception to Withering Boon, the biggest downside to counter spells are they are entirely exclusive to blue meaning other color combinations without blue do not have this option available.

Which method do you rely on to stop massive hexproof creatures? Is there a card or solution set not listed here that you use? If you happen to play EDH decks with big massive hexproof creatures, which effects annoy/counter you the most?

bryanedds on Slum Guardian, Silumgar

2 months ago

Add Arcane Lighthouse for 33rd land.

Serabelle on Avacyn Worldslayer

2 months ago

Hey, nice to see someone else is trying to make Avacyn competitive! Here are some thoughts from my own Avacyn deck, I’m still in the process of building it as well. :)

Ramp:

• Rocks such as Fractured Powerstone over Worn Powerstone may be helpful (just because the latter comes in tapped which kinda delays your board setup)

• Personally I like Helm of Awakening, Thought Vessel and Arcane Signet. These are cheap rocks that don’t come in tapped allowing you to ramp a little more efficiently (especially since white needs all the help it can get with ramp)

Card Quality:

• Card Draw options for white: The Immortal Sun, Illuminated Folio, Endless Atlas, Mangara, the Diplomat, Mind's Eye and Treasure Map  ^Flip (combos very nicely with Smothering Tithes)

• Scroll Rack combos well with Land Tax and helps with card quality

• Sensei's Divining Top (Card quality)

Protecting Avacyn:

• Avacyn is a huge threat and most people will definitely try to stop you from using her by: countering her summoning, exiling her, -x/-x, sacrifice, copying or stealing her.

• Teferi's Protection is complete board protection. Probably the best defense white has.

• Effects like Otherworldly Journey or Long Road Home allow you to save her from exile board wipes, Cyclonic Rift and the like.

• Arcane Lighthouse is useful in circumstances that someone copies or steals your Avacyn.

• Whispersilk Cloak can also combo well with Worldslayer (just be sure to equip Worldslayer first).

Spot Removal:

• Oblation (shuffles back into deck)

• Condemn (puts attacking creature at the bottom of its owner’s library)

Counter Spells: (Not that there are many in white).

• Lapse of Certainty

• Mana Tithe

Stax:

• Ghostly Prison (useful with low monster count decks)

• Angel of Jubilation

• Deafening Silence or Rule of Law

• Blind Obedience

• Crackdown

• Void Winnower (works well with Avacyn)

• Angelic Arbiter

Potential Planeswalkers:

• Elspeth Tirel (Token blockers, board wipes)

• Elspeth, Sun's Champion (token blockers, board wipes)

• Elspeth, Knight-Errant (“Avacyn” emblem, which could help take some focus off her)

Good Luck! I hope the deck building goes well! :)

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Chevill, the Mustached Monster Murderer

3 months ago

Hi there. This looks like a pretty tight (and obnoxious :p ) list. You already run Arcane Lighthouse, but have you also considered Shadowspear to get around indestructible? Detection Tower is another option to remove hexproof. Lastly, if you want to be extremely degenerate, Horobi, Death's Wail would be gross in a deck like this.

+1 from me

ClockworkSwordfish on EDH Eldrazi

3 months ago

Considering how big the average creature here is, this seems like the perfect home for Bonders' Enclave. I'd also recommend Arch of Orazca, considering how much colorless mana you have floating around, and possibly even Throne of the High City for once you get going.

I'd also recommend Tectonic Edge over Encroaching Wastes - how often will you have four spare mana but your opponent won't have four lands? - and maybe Arcane Lighthouse as a backup version of Detection Tower.

enpc on The Crown Scourge

4 months ago

Comparing modern bogles to commander voltron is comparing apples and oranges. And notbody said that hexproof isn't great for voltron commanders.

Stright up, yes, counterspells are amazing. there are so many zero and one CMC protection counterspells to keep your commander alive that it's really not hard to hold up some removal while progressing your board state. And for a strategy like voltron, you need to keep pressure on your opponents. Blue does this much better than red does.

In addition to that, generally the best voltron strategies lean into equipment rather than auras due to the fragility of auras. And leveraging something like a Sigarda's Aid + Colossus Hammer is really all you need for Rafiq.

Not to mention, hexproof is not the be-all and end-all protection for your commander. Council's Judgment is a card, so is Arcane Lighthouse, Bonds of Mortality and Shadowspear. And while your opponents may not initially run these cards and you get a few games in where you're in the clear, these cards will soon make their way into decks.

golgarigirl on Need help finding cards to …

4 months ago

Make them sac it! That indestructible hexproof unblockable 20/20 got you down? Good thing I have a Plaguecrafter or Diabolic Edict here to make them sad! You can even flash some of it in with Alchemist's Refuge, Winding Canyons, or a whole bunch of artifacts, enchantments, and creatures that let you do it nowadays so they learn their lesson not to swing at you.

There are also a good number of artifacts and lands nowadays that can get rid of that pesky hexproof. Detection Tower, Arcane Lighthouse, and Glaring Spotlight are your friends. And the lands don't even cost you a 'real' card slot, and are repeatable...my favorite!

Anarkhy on Kozilek, turn1 big boi

6 months ago

Update: trying out Cloudpost and Glimmerpost

took out Arcane Lighthouse and Staff of Nin