Baleful Strix
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Rules Q&A

Baleful Strix

Artifact Creature — Bird

Flying, deathtouch

When Baleful Strix enters the battlefield, draw a card.

Crow-Umbra on Salty Commanders!

1 day ago

Hi grumbledore, I know you have plenty on your plate from things we've all been reporting to you, but I wanted to bring a few more things to your attention:

  • Decks with Maybeboards that are from Archidekt seem to have the Maybeboard factored/calculated in as if they were a part of the 99 for that deck.

  • Aggravated Assault was listed as a Ramp card, and not an Aggro card.

I know you made an update to categorize more cards a couple days ago, but in addition to other Uncategorized I previously mentioned, the following also lack categories:

marco-online on The Black Rose Grand Theft

2 days ago

Reee Strangelove. I took the deck for some spins today and I must say the general increase of creatures was a nice suggestion!

I could not see all new cards but some of them.

What I got out of my games today:

Imperial Recruiter is better then most of the random draw engines with e.g. Baleful Strix. Recruiter can look for Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

I won with Massacre Girl. She did her thing as opressive engine very very well!

Thran Vigil is a card that should be in any Marchesa deck now. It shines!

I stole another commander with Mark of Mutiny and converted it to my board with Marchesa's delayed effect. I know you don't like the target theft ones but I is really helping me out all the time!

I made some tiny swap's here and there. Cant wait to check out more of the new options the deck got.

multimedia on Urza's Legacy

1 week ago

Hey, some interesting card choices for upgrades to the precon. I can tell your deck is based on the precon because I see Darksteel Juggernaut.

A kink here to work on is the avg. CMC. The mana curve is very high at 4.3 not including Organic Extinction and Mycosynth Golem. The precon mana curve is already high at 3.5 not including Thought Monitor. A higher mana curve would be fine if supported with lots more low mana cost ramp, but you cut most of the low mana cost ramp (Signets, Liquimetal, Vessel) from the precon. There's only 6 ramp sources here 3 CMC or less which is low.

You could have a difficult time casting Urza using artifact creature affinity with only 7 artifact creatures 3 CMC or less. You really can't count on Urza's artifact affinity to first cast him and having not many ramp sources, ramp can't be counted on either. Master Transmuter is a great upgrade, she helps a lot when playing a lower amount of ramp. To improve the mana curve which will help gameplay consider choosing a few of the better high mana cost cards and cutting the others? Most 4 drops here are much better than the 5-7+ drops and that's good for the mana curve.

Research Thief, The Mightstone and Weakstone  Meld, Blightsteel Colossus, Mycosynth Golem, Thopter Assembly, Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, Organic Extinction, Darksteel Forge, Mycosynth Lattice, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Cyberdrive Awakener these are the better 5-7 CMC cards here. The others could be cut to lower the mana curve because they're simply not as good as these.

  • Thief, it's repeatable draw effect is good when you want to be attacking with Constructs.
  • Weakstone because you have Urza, Lord Protector  Meld.
  • Blightsteel, best secondary attacker and because you have Master Transmuter.
  • Golem because Urza is a consistent way to create artifacts.
  • Assembly because you have Time Sieve.
  • Tezzeret because of Constructs.
  • Extinction because of Constructs.
  • Forge, best protection for all artifacts and because you have Lattice, Transmuter and Padeem.
  • Awakener flying for Constructs.

Some upgrades at your price point to consider:

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Urza’s legion

1 month ago

Hey, good start on a budget with what you have so far. Command Tower is a budget staple land for multicolored Commander decks and Arcane Signet is a budget staple mana rock.

Ramos, Dragon Engine can only be played in a five color deck using it as Commander or another five color Commander. It's activated ability has all five mana symbols and those symbols count toward it's color identity. Urza's color identity is only three colors Esper (black, white, blue). Because Urza doesn't have red and green that's why Ramos can't be played with Urza as Commander.

If you want aggro with Urza lets look at the beginning of the mana curve first, cards spots of 0-3 CMC only then we can look at the higher end of the mana curve. The first changes to consider is to remove all the nonartifact creatures and then later determine if they are worth a spot in your deck because they have abilities that help artifacts or Urza. I think you'll find that you don't need any of these creatures because artifact creatures can take their places. If you want to be aggro with Urza then you want to utilize Urza's artifact creature affinity to cast Urza quicker. To do this consistently Urza wants 0-2 CMC artifact creatures and some 3 CMC artifact creatures more than the rest.

Some of these creatures may be added back in later, most likely not, but for now lets build the creature base with only artifact creatures. For making upgrades lets look at best cards here with Urza and build around them? Arcbound Ravager and Portal to Phyrexia are the two best cards here with Urza because they're artifacts and they're abilities are more powerful compared to most other cards here. Ravager brings the aggro, but if aggro doesn't do it and you need more reach to win the game then Portal can do that. Lets start with Ravager and what makes it better with Urza? Modular and you have some here, more one drops can help toward Urza's artifact creature affinity and Ravager.

Steel Overseer adds to the +1/+1 counter strategy, it's powerful but only for artifact creatures and if trying to be aggro it's a good reason to play very few nonartifact creatures. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept goes well with Arcbound Ravager since with Ravager you want to sac artifacts and Silas lets you cast an artifact from your graveyard. It's deathtouch combined with Urza's menace makes it a creature who opponent is not going to block and lose two or more creatures blocking it. Baleful Strix, Triarch Praetorian, Malcator's Watcher are two drop artifact creatures who fly and who draw when enter the battlefield (ETB) or dies.

Some artifacts here are worse than others.

Think about limiting the amount of nonartifact spells to just the better ones you have here?

Equipment that increases the equipped creature's power equal to the amount of artifacts you control really ups the aggro since then any little artifact creature can become huge which combined with menace can make it a great attacker. I see Silver Myr and it's good here since counts twice for Urza, artifact creature affinity and ramp. Consider adding more artifact creature mana dorks who can make colored mana?

The budget Signets can help for ramp as well as color fixing which is really needed because the manabase here is pretty much all basic lands. Arcane Signet is a staple budget mana rock for ramp in Commander. Chromatic Lantern is fine for color fixing, but you're going to want more than that.

Some nonartifact creatures at the beginning of the mana curve can really help aggro and Urza.

Losheel, Clockwork Scholar is powerful with artifact creatures when attacking is what you want to be doing especially Constructs. Your artifact creatures don't take damage in combat meaning that opponents will have a difficult time choosing to block since their blockers might die, but your creatures will be fine. Losheel is also repeatable draw, once on each players turn when an artifact creature ETB you draw this includes when a Construct is created by Urza if you didn't have an artifact creature ETB before your end step.

Sai, Master Thopterist can be a repeatable source of artifact creatures, Thopters, to be attackers or sac fodder. Emry, Lurker of the Loch is like Silas Renn, Seeker Adept more ways to cast artifacts from your graveyard is good with Arcbound Ravager and other sac outlets.

That's it for this comment, but if you're still interested I'll give advice about the high end of the mana curve here to take more advantage of aggro into mid game and Portal to Phyrexia late game as well as some budget land options for the manabase. Would you like more advice?

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Urza, CEO of Machines

2 months ago

Hey, good upgrades to the precon, what you've done so far.

How do you want to win? Determining the main strategy you want to play can help to keep good cards for that strategy and cut unnecessary cards. If you're wanting to keep precon level budget then doing combat damage with Constructs and Commander damage with Urza are directions to consider. Research Thief and Bident of Thassa are excellent budget cards if you want to be attacking with Constructs. Making Urza an artifact makes him a reliable source of Commander damage, but this means including effects to make Urza an artifact.

You have Urza, Lord High Artificer, he's a combo wincon, but to use him as a wincon you'll want to add other cards and more ways to assemble the combo. Drawing cards from Constructs doing combat damage to opponents is a good alternative to playing expensive price tutors to get combo pieces in your hand.

You have Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, you don't really need Mycosynth Golem especially not for it's price tag. You don't need this Tezzeret either, but if you have it might as well play it. The first cuts to consider are lands since 41 lands is a lot when the strategy here are artifacts. Consider cutting 6 lands? Lands that always ETB tapped and are worse then others that also do this. If you feel you need more mana then add mana sources (rocks, dorks) not lands.

The Bounce lands and Scry lands are worse always ETB tapped lands then Tri lands, Bridges, etc.

Some advice for more cuts is choose the top 20 creatures here, top 10 artifacts and top 10 other nonland cards. By choosing the best cards then you can cut a huge chunk away of lesser cards.

Creatures:

Artifacts:

Others:

For upgrading it's easier to get an established list that's not 99 cards then have a list that's way over 99 cards. Really any 0-3 drop artifact creature who can make some value to take advantage of Urza artifact creature affinity or any 0-2 drop mana rock for more ramp can fill unfilled deck spots.

Good luck with your deck.

Arkheid on Aleléo

5 months ago

A must: Wayfarer's Bauble, Etchings of the Chosen, Baleful Strix, Coastal Piracy, Inspiring Leader.

Maybe? Solemn Simulacrum, Seal of Cleansing.

good but high mana cost: Gravitational Shift, Thalisse, Reverent Medium.

I would Remove

Winged Words cheap, not the first card to remove, but a bit weak in the long run

Hushbringer not so worth it

Shambling Suit and Shinechaser are not worth it

Eye Collector????

Bag of Holding too complicated

Workshop Elders too costly, 7 mana for a 4/4 each turn....> in this case just play Divine Visitation

Necramus on Queza, the Queefer

6 months ago

Okay. So, I think you should really lean into the control/combo shell. This deck could use combos like Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood, with some added redundancy in the forms of Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Marauding Blight-Priest, or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion to close out the game. In order to accomplish this, I think you should cut a ton of the creatures and really lean into board wipes, control spells, and resource denial.

Things like:

Arterial Flow

The Meathook Massacre

Dovin's Veto

Spell Pierce

Necropotence

Ghostly Prison

Propaganda

Revenge of Ravens

Damnation

Wrath of God

Supreme Verdict

Time Wipe

Counterspell

Mana Drain

Rhystic Study

Smothering Tithe

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Vampiric Tutor

Demonic Tutor

Search for Glory

Idyllic Tutor

Enlightened Tutor

Mystical Tutor

Cyclonic Rift

Murderous Rider

Feed the Swarm

Infernal Grasp

Fierce Guardianship

Deadly Rollick

Fateful Absence

Underworld Dreams

Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted

Windfall

Solve the Equation

Baleful Strix

Drown in the Loch

Mana Leak

Professor Onyx

Narset, Parter of Veils

Nihil Spellbomb

Arcane Signet

Azorius Signet

Orzhov Signet

Dimir Signet

Talisman of Dominance

Talisman of Progress

Esper Sentinel

Lion Sash

Swords to Plowshares

Deep Gnome Terramancer

Archivist of Oghma

Teferi's Protection

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Teferi, Time Raveler

Teferi, Master of Time

Dig Through Time

Drannith Magistrate

Malevolent Hermit  Flip

Aven Mindcensor

Hushbringer

Aura of Silence

Sea Gate Restoration  Flip

Negate

Sphinx's Revelation

Authority of the Consuls

On Thin Ice

Generous Gift

Ponder

Gitaxian Probe

Brainstorm

Gadwick, the Wizened

The Magic Mirror

Echo of Eons

Narset's Reversal

Swift Reconfiguration

Land Tax

Blind Obedience

Darksteel Mutation

Grasp of Fate

Silence

Farewell

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

You could also do cute stuff like Phyrexian Unlife + Solemnity, giving yourself time to wipe the board again or go for the win with Peer into the Abyss. You should also consider taking a look at your mana base.

I'd suggest going for some fetches, checks, and shocks like:

Flooded Strand

Polluted Delta

Marsh Flats

Hallowed Fountain

Glacial Fortress

Watery Grave

Drowned Catacomb

Godless Shrine

Isolated Chapel

Deserted Beach

Shattered Sanctum

Shipwreck Marsh

Command Tower

You also have way too many plains right now. Even before you get the lands I just named, you should cut 6 Plains for 4 Swamp and 2 Island.

I know I've given you a lot of suggestions. I think if you tried putting a list together with all the cards I named, plus some of the bangers from your current list and you'd have a badass deck! Don't worry about trying to do all that right now, though. See which look most appealing/are in your price range and add those first. A lot of these should be long term goals!

Don't tell Rett I gave you so many suggestions XD

-Blake

biggestmtgnerd on Life & Death by Taxes

6 months ago

I agree with cutting Archetype of Finality and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I'd also cut Tithe Drinker and Baleful Strix, they seem relatively low-impact all things considered.

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