Assault Formation
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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
Freeform Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Assault Formation

Enchantment

Each creature you control assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power.

: Target creature with defender can attack this turn as though it didn't have defender.

: Creatures you control get +0/+1 until end of turn.

StopShot on Need help writing card text: …

4 months ago

There are cards like Assault Formation, High Alert, Wakestone Gargoyle that allow creatures with defender to attack as though they didn't have defender.

I want to make a custom commander for a kindred group of creatures known for having card text that reads "this creature can't block" and I want the commander to allow those creatures to block as though they didn't have that restrictive ability. I'm stumped as to how to write that in an understandable and concise manner.

"[Creature type] you control can block as though they didn't have 'this creature can't block.'" reads poorly to me because "this creature can't block" isn't a keyword but an oddly specific line of text.

Most of the creatures of this group have flying, so I've currently settled on, "[Creature type] you control have flying and can block as though they have no other abilities." which feels like it would work better, but I worry it might become confusing if I give one of those creatures something like a Basilisk Collar - would that mean the creature would not have lifelink or deathtouch when blocking with such an effect? It could be confusing for my opponents which I want to avoid.

I'd like to know how exactly you'd write such an effect on a card so that it comes off just as eloquently as the example cards that have "this creature can attack as though it didn't have defender." Do you have any ideas?

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Shell Hath No Fury Like A Turtle With Crabs

7 months ago

Looks awesome! I have a 60 card turtle tribal, and I actually considered building Pride in a similar way.

I do have some cards you might want to consider:

Rapid Hybridization, Pongify: Both are cheap kill spells, and the tokens left behind will badically never be a problem for you.

Dive Down: Quite the great protection spell, and once you have Bedrock Tortoise or Assault Formation online, it will even be a combat trick.

Charix, the Raging Isle: Duuh ;D

Profaner of the Dead: One-sided wipe that's taylor-made for the deck.

Bident of Thassa: The card draw is great, but the activated ability is powerful for you, as it's basically redundancy for Angler Turtle.

Balaam__ on Turtle Power!

9 months ago

@Siege- Whichever format you settle on, you’ll want to narrow your deck’s focus. Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none approaches seldom (if ever) work. You already have the objectively ‘best’ way to play Turtles—the Assault Formation approach—so I would encourage you to double down on it. Build around that specific functionality.

Oftentimes the hardest part of deck building is cutting the ‘…but I really like this card’ cards which don’t move your core strategy forward. Once you do, you’ll find consistency skyrockets and wins tend to come along with that. Not having access to cards is a perfectly legitimate reason to not include them, but keep them in mind nonetheless in case you get the opportunity to acquire them.

Balaam__ on Turtle Power!

9 months ago

There’s a lot to like here, but also room for improvement. A simple ‘strictly better’ change is to get rid of Uncharted Haven and replace it with some type of dual that’s appropriate for whatever budget you’ve allotted this deck. The problem with Uncharted Haven is it enters tapped, which automatically puts you behind schedule. Legacy is ridiculously fast paced (even in non-competitive settings) so anything with [this card] enters the battlefield tapped stapled to it is dead weight. There are a whole host of better lands to occupy that spot, some more expensive than others. Misty Rainforest and Breeding Poolfoil immediately come to mind, as do Hengegate Pathway  Flip and Hinterland Harbor. There’s Tropical Island too but that’s prohibitively expensive.

At a glance, your turtles seem a bit unfocused. You’ve stuck within the creature type, yes, but they’re all pulling in different directions—Ninjutsu, Flash, counters etc. You have the right idea with the Assault Formation/Treefolk Umbra strategy, you just need to trim the extraneous stuff and double down on that. Run 4x copies of those to ensure you draw them every single game.

Cut cards you probably wont have the mana to fully utilize like Primal Might, and replace fringe-use cards like Artful Dodge and Witch's Web with things that play into Turtle Assault strengths.

You have a good base here to work with, and the good news is you wouldn’t have to change much at all to significantly streamline things, and the core idea will remain intact.

multimedia on Exploding Kobolds

1 year ago

Hey, interesting deck.

Consider adding green? By adding green you get Glimpse of Nature, Noxious Revival, Elvish Spirit Guide. Glimpse and Revival go well together to keep casting Glimpse. Guide provides a green mana source without needing a land that can make green. Green also has Assault Formation, not needing an anthem effect to increase Kobolds power since only toughness matters. With 4x Glimpse you would only need 1x Formation as well as some kind of haste for all your creatures source such as Burst of Speed that you cast after casting all your Kobolds for the turn. With 4x Glimpse, 1x Grapeshot is all you need.

Stomping Ground, Karplusan Forest, Copperline Gorge can be dual lands that could replace Mountains? Lotus Petal and/or Wild Cantor, replacing some Mountains gives you a mana source of any color while also counting towards storm. The problems with Impact Tremors and Purphoros, God of the Forge are they need to be on the battlefield before you start casting Kobolds. In theory Tremors/Purphoros seem good, but in gameplay they seem slow, too inconsistent hit or miss.

Consider this package for upgrades?

Good luck with your deck.

Eloniel on Nobody has the intention of building a Wall

1 year ago

Azeure To be honest there is plenty of redundancy that we don't play:

The only one worth running for me is High Alert because it does both "every creatures with defender may attack" and "they assign combat damage equal to their toughness" for every creatures without having to pay mana to apply the effect.

The second best one for me is Assault Formation but i still cuted it. Bedrock Tortoise is almost playable, if either the hexproof was not conditionnal to your turn or if it's mana value was 3 instead of 4.

For 3 mana we usually have 0/7 defender without abilities Glacial Wall / Wall of Ice or 0/6 with abilities Hover Barrier ( i don't take into account the 2 very good 3 mana drop that are Wall of Denial / Weathered Sentinels).

So now let's review Plagon, Lord of the Beach, Plagon is only a 0/3, don't deal damage equal to it's toughness without paying 1 extra mana each time, it's doesn't draw us a card with Arcades and it's ability only fufill one of the 2 needed condition for redundancy as explained above. I agree it could draw us lot of cards, ranging from 2 to 5-6. If we didn't had draw engine in the command zone i would say it worth it, bu since we have one i don't thinks it's necessary.

It's already very hard to find room for each new creatures cards, i'm already having hard time finding room for Crystal Barricade and consider removing Brave the Sands from my deck. A 3 mana creature has to be really really good to make the cut in Arcades now, and i don't speak about 4 mana creatures. I'm still on fence regarding Corrupted Shapeshifter since the only 4 mana creatures i play are Arcades, Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and Tree of Redemption, and i wonder if i would not rather include Towering Titan instead as another wincon.

PS: My decklist if you want to have a look

9-lives on Azorius Testudo Spearhead

1 year ago

Thanks, Predator_90! I would love to run that card with Charix, the Raging Isle, but this is an Azorius deck. Would be great if I could, but that would require me running a better manabase. If I did, I would include Assault Formation and Tower Defense.

Azeure on Nobody has the intention of building a Wall

1 year ago

Just wanted to drop a comment here to say thanks! I just built my first EDH deck based your deck list and all the discussions made from this comment thread! I've always loved Bant colors and enjoyed playing Assault Formation during its time in standard around 2016 when I last played MTG! So hearing that Arcades exists (and has decks on a good budget), it got me excited to return and build an EDH deck! Really enjoyed the discussions on this thread and I learned a lot!

I hope I get the chance to play with Arcades soon! I just have to look for nearby hobby shops and try to make new friends to play with. I'm excited!

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