Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle

Legendary Creature — Kraken

This enters tapped with 5 slumber counters.

As long as there is a slumbering counter on this, this a land. (This will not be a creature.)

Whenever you cast a spell, you may remove a slumber counter from this.

{T}: Add {G}{U}.

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
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (47)

griffstick on Simic stompy?

1 year ago

I built a stompy deck with Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle and its so good. So the idea is that the cmdr is always gonna put you 2 turns ahead. So the deck contains lots of 6 and 7 drops. The mana curve is weird but the deck works great.

Michigone on Crow_Umbra

1 year ago

Hey Crow-Umbra, I finally got the chance to play Isshin in a pod a few nights ago! All of my playtesting has just been me playing Isshin and a friend's Mayael the Anima against each other online. It has helped me learn to assess threats to my deck's strategy in a 1v1 setting, and in 1v1, my Isshin deck is feels solid. But since I'm the only one doing the playtesting, I don't play more than 1v1. But maybe I should. That's a good thought to explore.

But. 1) What's your win rate with Isshin in your pod? 2) How do you win with Isshin in multiplayer? Not you specifically, but more generally, how does one win with Isshin in multiplayer, thousand-foot strategy and all that, although obviously I also want to know how you specifically win with your Isshin deck.

Thoughts on the two mutliplayer Isshin games:

The deck had a very Purph feel to it, and it was fun to play at the table and watch people get burned down. But I was first out in game one and second out in game two. There was way more interaction and removal at the table than usual, mostly from my side, especially a few great board wipes in both games. But I lacked the card draw and mana to get back up and running faster than other players after the wipes.

So what do I do? Lean more into group slug, i.e. put in Impact Tremors? Lean away from wipes and focus on ramp and draw? More protection for my creatures? Anyway, these are just some thoughts I'm kicking around. The finer points of piloting that I'm still struggling with and would love some input on can be articulated as thus.

3) In thinking of actions I could have taken differently in my games to better my chances of winning, I reasoned that I could have assessed who was the biggest threat at the table (I actually knew this both games, but more on that in question two) and just directed all my damage output to them first, thus knocking them out. Then I would turn on the other two players and gut them. I COULD play this way, but my feelings on playing that way can best be described as distasteful. I don't want to be a bully. Maybe more specifically, I dont want another player to have to sit out for a long time because I gunned them down first and then have them watch me slowly debone the other two players. Seems like it might be unfun for them. But is that a route to victory? I mean, if I'm going to become the archenemy right away because of the fast aggression of the deck and the quick changes to my board state, do I have to embrace that mindset? Which leads me nicely to question...

4) As the only deck in the meta with a robust removal suite, I played both games with a strategy towards parity for all players so that everyone could be at the table for as long as possible. Is this a bad strategy? To better define "parity for all" I'll give you an example. I knew the biggest threat at the table in game 1 was the Ghired, Conclave Exile deck, and I rightly removed its Anointed Procession when it was played, because I knew how out of hand that could get, but I held myself back from using more removal on its Garruk's Uprising in the vain hope that the other players at the table would understand the threat it represented and use their own removal on it. I also held back because I didn't want the Ghired player to feel unfairly targeted by my removal, even though I knew how big of a threat their deck was (The other two decks were a SLOW and poorly tuned Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle and the Isperia, Supreme Judge pre-con unchanged). When playing aggro (or maybe even magic in general), is playing for parity possible if a player is trying to win?

Now the last question is probably more of a style of play choice, but comes from the same place as the others.

5) I noticed that board wipes kept me in the game, and kept the game going, but at what cost? As I may have mentioned before, our meta is very little permission and removal, and we often get 3-4 games in over a 3 hour period. We seem to like this pace of play, as it allows us to switch up decks, try new things out, and everyone gets to do their thing. With a board wipe, it kept everyone at the table longer because the games lasted longer, but we only got 2 games in over the course of 5 hours. They were much closer games, with lots of back and forth, which kept it engaging, but maybe it would have been better to scoop and get more games in? My problem with board wipes is more a two part question I guess. Part I) How do I recover more quickly after a board wipe than my opponents? Do I need more card draw? Do I need more protection to keep my creatures around? And Part II) I guess this is similar to question four, but when is the right time in an aggro deck to play a board wipe? How do I threat assess the table correctly to say board wiping now will help me close out the game in a turn or two? And maybe more broadly, if my philosophy has been in almost all of my decks so far to win in a big flashy play all in one moment (infinite combo or alpha strike), do I need to shift off that playstyle in order to play a low to the ground fast aggro deck with a hefty removal suite? Is there a way in Isshin to have a big flashy win besides building board state over turns? Is that leaning more towards group slug?

Anyway, this is a massive post, and I know that it is an investment of time and energy to read all of this let alone answer all or even any of these questions, so if you have any thoughts that you want to share I am very appreciative that you took the time to read all this and come up with a/some response(s).

Thanks,

Michigone

Epicurus on Ramos, Mutate Engine! Wait, what?

1 year ago

I love the idea, so +1 to that!

A couple notes, though, with regards to your choice of commander.

First, you have a lot of mono-colored spells on the list. In fact, only 15 multicolored spells for the deck, while also having 10 colorless spells. That won't get 5 counters on Ramos very quickly, and the longer he sits the greater the chance he will be removed before he can pop. Ramos is one of those kill-on-site type of commanders.

Pertaining to that, a lot of your Mono-colored spells are in your instants and sorceries - particularly draw spells. And, obviously, your colorless spells are mana producing artifacts. What I would do would be to find multicolored spells that draw cards or produce mana and swap them.

Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, Faeburrow Elder, and Leyline Prowler are all good multicolored mana producers. And Ilysian Caryatid is mono-colored, but at least puts a counter on Ramos, which a colorless artifact won't (and, on top of that, is just really damn good).

For draw spells, I really like Brokers Charm for Ramos. Some good repeating draw engines are Chulane, Teller of Tales, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, Mask of Riddles, Jori En, Ruin Diver. A couple more single use draw spells are Diabolic Vision and Shielding Plax (which doubles as protection for Ramos).

A lot of this will potentially raise your mana curve a bit, so keeping a few of the 2-drop mana rocks wouldn't be bad, and maybe keeping Brainstorm, for example, wouldn't hurt. However, you'll be surprised how much more quickly and repeatedly you can get Ramos up to 5 counters if you include some of the stuff I've listed.

Sorry for the thesis, hahaha. I've just been playing Ramos a lot in the past few years, and I feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of how to play him.

Good luck, and happy gathering!

Gidgetimer on Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle with Blood …

2 years ago

Both effects apply in layer 4. So it is in fact a dependency. Since Blood Moon depends on Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle's ability, Arixmethes will always apply before Blood Moon reguardless of timestamps.

613.8. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is sometimes done using a dependency system. If a dependency exists, it will override the timestamp system.

613.8a An effect is said to “depend on” another if (a) it’s applied in the same layer (and, if applicable, sublayer) as the other effect; (b) applying the other would change the text or the existence of the first effect, what it applies to, or what it does to any of the things it applies to; and (c) neither effect is from a characteristic-defining ability or both effects are from characteristic-defining abilities. Otherwise, the effect is considered to be independent of the other effect.

Delphen7 on Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle with Blood …

2 years ago

Say I control Blood Moon. If I proceed to cast Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, how does Arixmethes enter?

What about if I control an Arixmethes with counters, then I cast Blood Moon. Is the end result different?

I know this involves dependencies, but I'm not familiar enough with them to be sure what happens.

Noholdmine on Garth One Eyed Cheater

2 years ago

Some easy ways to add interaction to this deck would be to add some enchantment and creature removal spells. Krosan Grip, Return to Dust, Rapid Hybridization/Pongify, Arcane Denial to replace Dissolve, Anguished Unmaking, Damn, and Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile are all clean and efficient methods of interaction. Saryth, the Viper's Fang, Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and Veil of Summer/Heroic Intervention are solid protection options for your creatures as well. Right now you're running Anger with only 2 Mountains in the entire deck, so that means either the mana base needs to be reworked or Anger needs to be replaced. Some easy ways to rectify the mana base a bit is to swap out some of your duals for the Red/x options (i.e, Blood Crypt, Stomping grounds, etc.). We can also make the deck more efficient by changing up the ramp so that it has utility or generates more than one color of mana. Cards like Deathrite Shaman, Kiora's Follower, Noble Hierarch/Ignoble Hierarch, Faeburrow Elder, and Birds of Paradise are all decent options. Right now Anger and Chainer, Nightmare Adept are the only cards that can give Garth haste. Since we only have a few creatures that actually benefit from the haste, cards that generate value outside of simply providing haste would be beneficial. Rhythm of the Wild would not only give our creatures haste, but would make it harder for opponents to counter the creatures and combos with the persist creatures in the deck by giving them +1/+1 counters. Temur Ascendancy is another decent option since we can draw cards even when our creatures don't benefit from haste and it synergizes with our Flicker and Undying/Persist effects. An infinite combo option would be Jeskai Ascendancy + Garth One-Eye + Any haster + Deadeye Navigator and even if we're not comboing, we can still generate value from each card individually. I personally feel that cards like Frantic Search and Careful Study are too good to not have in this type of deck, since a good majority of our cards benefit in some way from being in the graveyard or we have easy ways of getting them back. In tandem with this idea, I think that cards like Regrowth (even though Garth One-Eye already has a Regrowth) and Eternal Witness are musts, especially since Eternal Witness generates value with the Flicker effects and other revive effects in the deck. An honorable mention that didn't quite make it into my comment but could be effective is Spark Double since it would allow us to have multiple versions of legendary creatures if we so chose, 2 Muldrotha's could lead to quite the turn! Unfortunately, however, Commander has a deck maximum, which means that cards must be let go to make room for all the new fun stuff we want to play with. For this deck I suggest cutting Diamond Lion, Thespian Stage, Dark Depths, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, Kitchen Finks, Desperate Ravings, Nim Deathmantle, Harrow, Magus of the Will, Gaea's Will, Scapeshift, Chronozoa, Raving Visionary, Thought Courier, Dissolve, possibly Twilight Shepherd, possibly Rampant Growth, possibly Seize the Spoilsand possibly, Purphoros, God of the Forge. At the end of the day, this deck is yours and you should play it and build it in the way that best suits you! Have fun gayming!

LordsofChaos115 on aggro growth animar

2 years ago

here are some recommendations Desolation Twin, Giant Adephage, Omnath, Locus of Rage, Quartzwood CrasherShaman of Forgotten Ways, Zhur-Taa Druid, Hammer of Purphoros, Idol of Oblivion, Divination, Predator's Rapport, Evolution Vat, Farseek, Explore, Cultivate, Colossal Majesty,Simic Ascendancy,Sarkhan Vol, Decimate, Relentless Assault, Fellwar Stone, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Gift of Paradise, Domri, Chaos Bringer, Song of Freyalise, Gyre Sage, Nimbus Swimmer,Simic Sky Swallower, Kiora, the Crashing Wave, Simic Growth Chamber, Hinterland Harbor, Whelming Wave, The Locust God, Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle

Volrishan on Deep Blue Depths

2 years ago

some other cards you might like are Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, Koma, Cosmos Serpent, Serpent of Yawning Depths, Spawning Kraken, and last but not least The Reality Chip