Back to Basics

Enchantment

Nonbasic lands don't untap during their controllers' untap steps.

Discussion (51)

DreadKhan on low-cost, extra annoying, tutor your heart out!

2 weeks ago

Huh, it appears you're correct, Energy Flux's 'bury' effect has been ruled a 'sacrifice' effect, not a 'destroy' effect, so it will hit Kaldra Compleat, good to know! Anyways, I use Energy Flux in Zur, and I generally don't worry about losing my artifacts if Zur is out, it's such a useful effect when it's good that hurting my own deck I feel is okay. YMMV, in my case I have access to Necropotence and Back to Basics to make Energy Flux better. Much obliged for pointing this out to me!

Dreamscape btw doesn't just put lands into hand, it's a Harrow effect, so you put the lands into play untapped. It's one of the weirdest ramp sources in the game in my experience, but finding untapped lands can let you do some crazy stuff. Once you have enough mana to activate Artist, it's actually just 1 mana each time you ramp, for a net total of 3 mana to get your first land out, and you can actually use it repeatedly, each turn you get another use for 1 mana, and if you run Retreat to Coralhelm, you can untap it each time you use it for free, letting you use it until you're either out of Basic lands or are out of mana/cards.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly on Dance of Many, it doesn't matter if the original version of a copy dies generally, the copy will survive until the card Dance itself or the token copy itself die, or you don't pay UU to keep it around. It's a solid effect if people run creatures you'd want to copy, and the art is pretty neat I think.

The niche use of Retreat I was thinking was that you can untap any creature you can target, be it Zur or another of your creatures like Sun Titan, which could be helpful with Stasis. Without Dreamscape Artist it's probably not worth running.

Probably the last random idea, but Nighthowler can be big in some metas, assuming people run graveyard decks or lots of creatures. You can either Bestow it on Zur for 4 mana, or fetch it out with Zur to make a big vanilla creature, very meta dependent but potentially pretty good.

SufferFromEDHD on Denry Klin, Editor in Chief [first draft]

3 weeks ago

coolcid78 noted and added. Kept Back to Basics because my mana base is %50 basic and Land Tax is a cheap engine for Azorius.

coolcid78 on Denry Klin, Editor in Chief [first draft]

3 weeks ago

i would switch Back to Basics for a Sol Ring

Kazierts on Pushing Poison

1 month ago

After reading your comment taking another look at your deck, I realized it has 70 cards. While, as I said, I don't intend to change your deckbuilding style, you should basically never go above 60 cards, unless your deck runs Yorion, Sky Nomad or Battle of Wits.

Your deckbuilding guidelines are quite interesting. Here's a few things I'd like to mention regarding them:

• First, a compliment so it doesn't like I'm just criticizing everything. What you mentioned about legendary creatures is basically the correct way to play with them, in most cases. Too many can brick you and too few makes them hard to draw.

• While, in some cases, it's good a backup windocondition, that does not apply to every archetype, Infect included. Because of the Infect keyword, the literally doesn't care about the opponent's life total. So, when you suddenly try to change to hit their life total with one or two creatures that don't have Infect, you're basically starting everything from scratch in the middle of a game. This goes into my next point which is your fear of hate cards.

• I completely understand some cards that can shut your deck down are scary, but I feel like you're letting your fear get in the way of your deck. I'll use my deck as example. My manabase is almost completely made of nonbasic lands, yet Blood Moon doesn't scare me. Why? I have Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek. If that's not enough, then I also have Ratchet Bomb in my sideboard. Melira, Sylvok Outcast? Fatal Push, Damn, Collective Brutality and Liliana of the Veil all deal with it. My point is there multiple ways to deal with threats that don't force you into an extremely narrow path. Also, if you're playing Modern, no one will use Back to Basics because it's not legal. This also goes into my next point, which is the mana effiency.

• Despite you saying you like to be mana effienct, a lot of cards here aren't. As I mentioned, some of them basically do nothing. Some actually do, but are overcoste, even in you examples. Sage's Row Denizen is very inefficient because mill decks like to turbo mill (which is something I personally don't like). This means the best mill creatures are Ruin Crab and Hedron Crab. When we come fo poisoning opponents, that's why Hand of the Praetors sees basically zero play outside of commander. Usually people just cast a Glistener Elf turn 1 and a Scale Up turn 2. Also, you're looking at the ratio, but not the usefulness of the creature. Sure, Cystbearer costs the same, manawise, as a Rot Wolf, but is incredibly worse.

If you want to follow this path of winning bast cast infect creatures with the hand on the field, then:

• Ichor Rats gives one by itself, making it two with the Hand.

• Another option, though a bit expensive, is Phyrexian Metamorph. It doesn't have Infect it self, but it can copy an Ichor Rats and a Hand.

• Plague Myr has Infect itself and allows you to cast a turn 3 Hand of the Praetors.

• Blight Mamba is a two mana creature that protects itself.

• And Whispering Specter is a Plague Stinger with an upside for one more mana.

• If you want to add a huge bomb, Phyrexian Swarmlord is going to capitalize really easily on all the counters your opponent already has.

I understand if the above mentioned are a bit above your budget. A lot of these Infect cards haven't had a reprint yet.

I love when people go for nonstandard builds of decks. I hope you cam improve this without sacrificing too much of your own style.

TheoryCrafter on Pushing Poison

1 month ago

Wow, thank you for sharing your input.

My deckbuilding style usually comes down to these rules:

-I try to have 2 workable strategies so if My deck takes a hit it's not immediately game over.

-If the average mana costs of the spell cards comes to above 3, the spell/land ratio is 3:2. If I can get it below 3 then the ratio is 2:1. The latter is what I've been aiming for per my deck description.

-I try to keep at least half my lands basic so that if an opponent plays Back to Basics or Blood Moon it won't result in an immediate scoop. If I'm running 3 or more colors in a deck, I'll usually run most if not all my red producing lands as nonbasics to render Blood Moon less effective. To determine how many of what lands that produce one mana I use basic Algebra and usually get close what mana calculators say.

-Because one of my biggest weaknesses in deckbuilding is a difficulty to "kill my darlings" if I can run lands with abilities that can keep spaces open for other cards. Boseiju, Who Endures and Inkmoth Nexus would likely make this deck were it not for their expense.

-I go by mana efficiency. Essentially if I'm using decktypes like Burn or Mill, I'll try to have at least 1 damage caused or 1 card milled for each one mana spent unless that card has an ability that is reusable. Thus I might use a card like Sage's Row Denizen for mill, but not necessarily a card like Fireball for burn if I have other options available. Thus when casting to give opponents poison I have to spend as little mana as possible, even if the 1:1 ratio goal is impractical if not impossible.

-Sometimes I'll use three copies of a inexpensive card manawise like Soulfire Grand Master and two copies of an expensive one like Radiant Scrollwielder that have some of the same effects but different power levels as a means to maximize without damaging my mana curve.

-Unless the card is absolutely vital to a deck, like Masako the Humorless would be in an Azorius advisor deck, I won't run more than two copies of a Legendary Creature card.

Kazierts, I'm not 100% sure yet I want to move into the standard way infect is played, but however I decide to score your suggestions you deserve kudos for their practicality for the way my deck is currently built. If you have ideas on how to balance standard infect strategy and casting to Poison they are welcome.

Gidgetimer on Blood Moon Debate

2 months ago

If the decks contain enough non-basics that Blood Moon or Back to Basics hoses your mana base, the power level is high enough that interaction should be expected and you should have ways to deal with it.

TheoryCrafter on Tech Pirates

5 months ago

Have you considered artifact lands including, but not limited to, Drossforge Bridge and Vault of Whispers? These would be a boon for Gadrak and Hellkite Tyrant.

With more than ¾ of your deck consisting of nonbasic lands you'll need enchantment hate to deal with cards such as Back to Basics and Blood Moon. Dockside Extortionist is good but Enchanter's Bane and cards including, but not limited to Pharika's Libation and Scour from Existence will supplement the go around. I hope this helps.

Happy Hunting!

julio0728 on Bruvac Petitioners

8 months ago

great list, I also own a Bruvac deck very similar to yours, I'm using petitioners but at this point, I do not own a Thrumming Stone.

In your list you do not run some cards like:

More ramp - Sapphire Medallion,Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, your land count is few 33, and only 3 ramp rock, no artifact tutors, I think will be hard sometimes to have 6 mana to cast Maddening Cacophony and kill all the table or recast Bruvac more times.

Protection - You ran 10 counterspells but not Lightning Greaves effects

What is your opinion about Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter combo? it needs rocks to be infinite, but cheaper than Intruder Alarm + Thrumming Stone. I do not run it now, but I was thinking on make some room in the deck for it.

I do run the Grindstone + Painter's combo and I included some artifact tutors FabricateWhir of Invention, also Sphinx's Tutelage, to have other combos to win.

Back to Basics will be a great inclusion in your deck. Since I'm not running Thrumming Stone I have only 23 Petitioners, but I'm planning to remove some cards to reach at least 25, and take advantage of cards like Herald's Horn that I also ran on the deck.