Arcane Signet

Artifact

: Add one mana of any colour in your commander's colour identity.

Discussion (44)

soulwarden11 on Archon Tribal

1 week ago

My first thought is “How does this deck manage to function on barely 31 Lands and a total of 5.5 Ramp spells and 3 Mana Rocks?!”

Archons are a VERY expensive tribe to run; I would be cramming as mana Land tutors and mana rocks into this deck as I could, along with at least 37 lands.

I tried running an Elf tribal deck with 30 lands and always found myself wanting more lands after the first board wipe, and Elves average 1-4 mana each—I bumped that deck up to 36 and it’s much smoother nowadays. The Archons here average 5.8 mana each.

Arcane Signet

Azorius Signet

Dimir Signet

Golgari Signet

Orzhov Signet

Simic Signet

Selesnya Signet

Urza's Incubator

Chromatic Lantern

Kodama's Reach

Farseek

Harrow

Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

Roiling Regrowth

Explosive Vegetation

Burgeoning

Exploration

Land Tax

Gift of Estates

Mirari's Wake

It’s not fun to sit there wishing you had more mana to play your big, bomb-y creatures while your opponents are doing stuff the whole game. I’ve been there more times than I care to remember.

If you don’t want to add more ramp and mana fixing, the other option is to go more heavily into stax and tax effects to slow down your opponents to give yourself more time to build up to your big spells. You have a couple in the deck already, but there’s tons of options, especially since you’re playing 4c and Archons just happen to be primarily in White and also just so happen to love creating stax effects of their own, AND they DO like Enchantments!

Authority of the Consuls

Ashes of the Abhorrent

Mystic Barrier

There’s obviously more than this, but I’m on my phone and these are what came to mind.

Last_Laugh on My Attempt at best Rakdos …

1 week ago

You can easily get to about 10 pieces of ramp in Rakdos. Talisman of Indulgence, Rakdos Signet, Sol Ring, Fellwar Stone, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Thought Vessel, Sword of the Animist, and Herald's Horn (if you've got enough minotaurs). Dockside Extortionist and Mana Crypt too if you already got 'em or are able to proxy. Generator Servant is nice also if you really want to ramp into something once and give it haste (or 2 hastey creatures if you spend on each.).

If you actually build this... consider Pain Magnification in your list. It's kinda a curse all opponents type effect as you or your opponents can make each other discard (but not you).

multimedia on Gruul Werewolf Pack

1 week ago

Hey, interesting high budget version of Tovolar with less Werewolves.

Human Werewolves that don't have day/night still count towards and transform when Tovolar upkeep triggers. The better Werewolves not having day/night is not really a drawback with Tovolar. Because Tovolar can repeatedly change from day to night then you have more chances to transform nonday/night Werewolves. If you play a nonday/night Werewolf after Tovolar transforms that's fine because more than likely Tovolar will flip back daybound giving you another chance to transform all Human Werewolves you control at your upkeep.

If you want to play a small amount of Werewolves then the ones you play really should give you more than just being a Werewolf.

• Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip
• Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip
• Tovolar's Huntmaster
• Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip
• Kessig Naturalist
• Scorned Villager  ^Flip
• Reckless Stormseeker  ^Flip: day/night Werewolf
• Outland Liberator  ^Flip: day/night Werewolf

With such a high budget you can do better than the vanilla Werewolves who don't give you anything when they're Humans as well as when they nightbound transform? Many of the Wolves are also subpar compared to all other cards here. If you're playing the Wolves just to be able to upkeep trigger Tovolar faster any Human Werewolf will do the same thing and give you more than any of these Wolves.

Wolves and Werewolves to consider cutting:

• Pestilent Wolf, Bounding Wolf, Lambholt Harrier, Snarling Wolf
• Tireless Hauler  ^Flip, Burly Breaker  ^Flip, Spellrune Painter  ^Flip

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Really nice Fetch lands, but consider playing a Forest/Mountain dual land to fetch: Stomping Ground, Cinder Glade, Sheltered Thicket? Adding these lands will also give Farseek a dual land to search for instead of only being able to search for a basic Mountain. Also by adding some Forest/Mountain dual lands then you could improve the land ramp spells with Nature's Lore and Three Visits.

Some changes to consider:

• Stomping Ground --> Vivid Grove
• Cinder Glade --> Thriving Grove
• Sheltered Thicket --> Temple of Abandon
• Nature's Lore --> Lay of the Land
• Three Visits --> Rampant Growth

Some other lands that would improve the manabase by cutting some basic lands especially Mountains:

• Spire Garden
• Grove of the Burnwillows
• Karplusan Forest
• Rogue's Passage
• Cragcrown Pathway  ^Flip
• Fire-Lit Thicket
• Rootbound Crag
• Game Trail

Arcane Signet could replace Herald's Horn since Horn doesn't do much if you're not tribal. With so few Werewolves or Humans as well as many different creature types then a mana rock would make more ramp.

Door of Destinies is another tribal only card and it's very slow with so few Werewolves or Humans to cast. Could cut Door for Beastmaster Ascension since it's an anthem for all creatures you control.

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Ghired Quartermaster

1 week ago

Hey, nice version with such a low budget. Only 40 cents or less for each card is an interesting idea.

Even though you're building a very low budget deck still consider some basic deck building guidelines to structure your deck? A basic structure is helpful when building any causal Commander deck to give you a good start.

• 36-38 lands (Exotic Orchard)
• 20-25 creatures (Angel of Sanctions)
• 10 ramp sources (Cultivate)
• 10 draw sources (Garruk's Packleader)
• 10 removal sources (Phyrexian Rebirth)

The numbers in this basic structure are just a start, not all areas are covered and the final numbers may be more or less for each part. A basic structure doesn't need anything but the basics, you can add other cards to make up other areas that you want specifically with your Commander after. 10 ramp and 10 draw sources help to make a smoother gameplay experience. The balance of extra mana from ramp with the draw sources theoretically helps to have mana and cards in your hand to cast with the mana. Creatures can be part of the numbers and cards that have more than one effect that can go in many different areas are excellent and should be priority for cards to play.

Compare the above example to your current deck structure:

• 33 lands
• 26 creatures
• 16 removal sources
• 3 ramp sources
• 1 draw source

The amount of creatures is a fine number, but there's disproportionate amount of removal compared to other areas. 33 lands with only 3 ramp sources, two of which are 4 CMC and 5 CMC are risky numbers because you can potentially get land screw (not drawing lands) as well as mana screwed (not having enough mana to cast spells). Having major potential for both of these to happen in a game can be really frustrating and is really bad for gameplay.

I believe you can never have enough draw in Commander since draw keeps the game going for you making gameplay much more fun. Harmonize is a good card, but only having it for draw is not enough.

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Ghired and the other impactful cards here are high CMC and you want to get to five mana for Ghired quicker than only relying on your land drops. More ramp can help and the best ramp to add such as Sol Ring and Arcane Signet are budget cards. Unfortunately, they aren't 40 cents or less though, here's some to consider:

• Cultivate
• Gruul Signet
• Boros Signet
• Wild Growth
• Fertile Ground
• Harrow
• Commander's Sphere

3 CMC or less ramp is preferred to have these plays in the early turns of the game which is best time to cast ramp since then it helps you to cast Ghired and all the other high CMC cards you want to cast later on in the game. You don't want to be casting 5 CMC or even 4 CMC ramp instead you want to use that amount of mana along with ramp that you cast before it to cast other more impactful spells.

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Lots of draw especially repeatable draw sources are important to have in Commander. Unfortunately, because of the budget restriction for cards doesn't give you a lot of options, but here some to consider:

• Garruk's Packleader: repeatable draw any time a 3 or more power creature you control ETB including creature tokens. Rhino's have 4 power.
• Voice of Many
• Zephyr Boots: repeatable draw, can also give equipped creature flying evasion.
• Mouth / Feed: only can cast Mouth first to create a 3/3 Hippo then Feed can only be cast from your graveyard.
• Mask of Memory: repeatable draw, equip any big creature you control who has evasion such as trample or flying.
• Shamanic Revelation

Creatures who can draw are nice with Flamerush Rider to make a copy of them to then populate with Ghired. This interaction is very good with Garruk's Packleader since the more Packleaders you control the more draw you get especially when you populate a Rhino as well as each Packleader triggers to draw from the other. Three of these suggestions care about the amount of creatures you control which is good when playing tokens.

I've given you a lot to think about, but I offer more advice in another comment if you would like, including cuts to consider. Good luck with your deck.

Grubbernaut on Help me convert this out …

2 weeks ago

What's your budget, and what sort of ultimate power level are you looking for?

In b/w, you'll definitely want to rock all your mana rocks. Orzhov Signet, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Hierarchy, and some number of colorless, depending on your build/preference, like Mind Stone, Everflowing Chalice, definitely Sol Ring, possibly Wayfarer's Bauble, etc.

I would strongly recommend getting a "backup" commander, in case the playgroup won't allow a walker - I personally loathe walkers as commanders, so it'd be a bad night to show up and be told they don't want to play. On that note, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim is a great Cleric commander.

The things to focus your budget on, overall, will be card draw, ramp, and removal; most of the non-cEDH "engine" cards won't cost that much, but things like sweepers, good targeted removal, and good card draw definitely will. And, of course, the good tutors are very expensive. You can also make a reasonably-budget reanimator list that'll work well, which will let you abuse something like Vilis, Broker of Blood.

The best all-encompassing resource will be looking at existing lists on here, edhrec, or similar.

Cheers!

Scytec on Help me convert this out …

2 weeks ago

You also have the option of using Athreos, God of Passage as your commander, because unfortunately Kaya is not a legal commander. The only planeswalker that are legal as commanders are the ones that specifically state they are on the card itself Commander works a little differently though, because there are traditionally more people at a table (4 people in a standard pod) lifegain doesnt mean quite the same thing as it does in brawl. Not saying it is bad, depending on the level youre playing at, doubling your starting life total can be really solid. Some options you could consider running alifegain list to win would be things like Approach of the Second Sun, Felidar Sovereign, and Aetherflux Reservoir. there are many other options as well, those are just the ones i would consider. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is another very popular commander that deals with lifegain if that is the route you want to take. If you want to lean more heavily into the tribal side of things, especially with a focus in angels, I would consider Kaalia of the Vast. She is a really powerful commander. In the deck you tagged here, if you wanted to choose a commander from that list i would go with Firja, Judge of Valor. Selective card draw is really good in commander, and this one you should be able to trigger quite frequently. A phenomenal resource for any player new to the commander format is edhrec.com. This link should take you straight to the page for Firja, Judge of Valor as I threw it in the search bar before I tagged the link, that should give you an idea of what to expect from the site. I will be honest, Orzhov is generally outside my comfort zone, but you're welcome to tag me in anything you put together and I will happily take a look. Since you're building a 100 card singleton deck, I highly recommend having in the ballpark of:

10-12 Ramp of some kind Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, etc.

10ish Card Draw/Engines of some kind Mentor of the Meek, Mind's Eye, etc.

8-10 Pieces of Single target removal Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, etc.

3-5 Pieces of Board control Damnation, Wrath of God, Merciless Eviction, etc.

This will set your deck up to work consistently, and there are some card that will kind of fit multiple roles for you such as Magister of Worth and the like. I like to start by choosing my commander and working from there, but many people build the deck they want and then choose the best option from every viable commander they can. It is all personal preference. Let me know if anything I said doesnt make sense, or if you want me to clarify anything. Hope you decide to join us for the best format in the game.

Romer on Flipping the Odds - A Coin Flip Story

2 weeks ago

I'm thinking you'll want to increase your ramp, probably getting up around 10 mana producers (besides your land). And perhaps lowering the cost of them - I often aim for mana rocks that cost 2 to cast or 3-cost with a lot of upside. Some suggestions:

• Sol Ring, for sure
• Arcane Signet, also one of the best
• Izzet Signet
• Mind Stone
• Thought Vessel
• Ruby Medallion, looks like you're over 70% red spells
• Ornithopter of Paradise
• Fellwar Stone
• Iron Myr
• Liquimetal Torque, as a 2-cost mana rock. The other ability probably won't matter.

flytyer97 on What is it? Dragons?!

2 weeks ago

Thanks KingLonsur! I will consider some options here, possibly with Fellwar Stone and Arcane Signet and the Orb of Dragonkind. Thanks for the suggestions!