Balthor the Defiled
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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
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Balthor the Defiled

Legendary Creature — Zombie Dwarf

Minion creatures get +1/+1.

, Exile this: each player returns all creatures cards that are black or red from their graveyard to the battlefield.

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Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on UB: LOTR

1 year ago

Abaques and Caerwyn - thank you for expanding on your critiques. I agree with a lot of what you have said though some of your critiques of the set don't bother me that much personally. Still, you both make good points.

Palantir of Orthanc might be the card I am most excited for right now. That is a snap add to my Balthor the Defiled/Sheoldred  Flip commander deck. It's either Mesmeric Orb #2 without the downside of annoying the entire table or straight card draw.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's …

2 years ago

Ancient Gold Dragon is pretty sweet. It's nice to see white get one of the strongest iterations in the cycle. I think the black one is still the best though.

Ancient Bronze Dragon is a bit underwhelming, but green having the weakest of the cycle is good for once.

Wild Magic Surge will be Chaos Warp v2.0. This is an instant staple in all mono-red decks, as well as probably Rakdos and Izzet decks. Not sure G or W aligned red decks will want it since they can already deal with most permanent types. The card definitely has a higher worst-case-scenario probability than Chaos Warp does, but I think it's flexibility will outweigh the negatives.

I really like Vexing Puzzlebox. It's a nice payoff for dice rolling decks that isn't too powerful.

Windshaper Planetar is interesting. On one hand, it's a better Portal Mage/Illusionist's Gambit, on the other hand, it costs 5 mana. Not sure how to rate this one yet.

Barroom Brawl is freaking hilarious and I love the card. Probably not terribly strong, but I think it creates a fairly entertaining play pattern.

I think Earthquake Dragon is going to be really strong in certain decks. This will reliably be a 3-5 cmc 10/10 with Flample in dragon tribal decks.

Eldritch Pact seems cool. My Balthor the Defiled deck may want this for mass card draw late game. It's also a decent finisher for mill decks after a Traumatize is fired off.

A few more decent reprints like Nature's Lore and Traverse the Outlands are trickling in, but I really hope they spoil a few more tomorrow.

I am pretty sure I know the answer to this already, but I'd like some quick clarification on Acolyte of Bahamut. Your commander has to be on the battlefield for the ability to take effect correct? So if it were paired with Ganax, Astral Hunter, it couldn't actually be used to reduce the cost of Ganax correct?

RNR_Gaming on New secret lair Alert!

2 years ago

Anyways with that whole kickstarter thing going on I noticed that the professor hasn't made a video so in case anyone was wondering

Some regular guys non-foil/foil

Void Winnower - 16.07/20.46

Vengevine - 10.71/12.95

Collector Ouphe - 5.63/33.07

Goblin Settler - 48.71/N/a

Non foil: 81.12 Foil: 115.19

Foil: B / non-foil: C+

There's a good bit of value with this secret lair. Goblin settlers getting its' first foil printing is definitely noteworthy. Also, if you're into the Adventure Time art style you'll like be picking this up anyways.

Showcase: Streets of New Capenna

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - 30.77/35.53

Breya, Etherium Shaper - 7.98/9.84

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - N/A/8.84

Non-foil: 47.59 foil: 54.21

Non-foil - D foil: C-

This grade pains me because I REALLY think the art on these is beautiful and they'll likely include a Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis in the same style as a bonus card but putting personal preferance and speculation aside the value just is not here.

Special Guest: Matt Jukes Foil Edition

Glacial Fortress - 3.71/11.25

Drowned Catacomb - 7.28/17.46

Dragonskull Summit - 3.79/6.96

Rootbound Crag - 3.81/6.55

Sunpetal Grove - 3.89/5.96

Non-foil: 22.48 foil: 48.18

Non-foil - F foil - D-

The value in these really speaks for itself.

Artist Series: Magali Villeneuve

Mother of Runes - 4.91/Varies

Death's Shadow - 6.12/10.19

Elvish Mystic - .45/9.97

Forest - N/A

Non-foil - 11.48 Foil: N/A

Non-foil - F Foil - D-

The biggest thing out of this lair is the foil Mother of Runes the prices fluctuates so much with the older foils it's hard to set an exact price to obtain a foil one; if we look at the previous secret lairs those versions of Mother of Runes are sitting at about 6-10 a piece.

Artist Series: Sidharth Chaturvedi

Concordant Crossroads - 46.87/N/A

Nomad Outpost - 1.06/5.74

Ghost Quarter - 1.12/16.90

Island - N/A

Non-foil: 49.05 foil: 69.51

Non-foil: D- foil: C

Essentially this lair is being carried by the fact that Concordant Crossroads only has 1 printing and has never had a foil printing. If you need one or would like to get a foil one knows your chance but outside of that its just some bulky cards with nice art.

Artist Series: Wayne Reynolds

Sram, Senior Edificer - .25/6.09

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell - .95/1.89

Depala, Pilot Exemplar - .23/1.65

Balthor the Defiled - 10.95/59.61

Non-foil: 12.38 Foil: 69.24

Non-foil - F Foil - C

This lair is also being carried by 1 card that has only 1 printing the rest is bulk.

Finally! Left-Handed Magic Cards

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain - .98/6.02

Empress Galina - 18.31/206.82

Geralf's Messenger - 9.89/34.48

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh - .26/.41

Garruk, Caller of Beasts - 8.20/23.41

Non-foil: 37.64 foil; 271.14

Non-foil - C Foil: A

While Empress Galina is definitely the chase card out of this; it still has value in the other slots too outside of Roger - but even Roger is still highly playable.

Anyways, after doing all the math and putting this all together I appreciate the professor doing this and compiling it a video format. Also, which secret lairs if any are you planning to get?

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Streets of New Capenna

2 years ago

Some commander focused thoughts on the main set since my last little blurb:

Rigo is a cool Tymna the Weaver/Edric, Spymaster of Trest type card that finally gives Bant a token commander.

Bootleggers' Stash will be quite a strong commander card (outside of the highest power levels). It's green, so it's probably coming down on T4, and all of your lands basically become storage lands that can be cashed in right away. I think folks doubting the card need to remember that similar things were said about the fairly similar Old Gnawbone, and that turned out to be quite strong. I think Bootleggers' Stash is a bit stronger than Old Gnawbone since it avoids more removal and doesn't require the combat step.

Shadow of Mortality wins the "best art in the set" award in my opinion. I don't fully agree with the Death's Shadow comparisons since it only ever hits for 7. Feels more like Scourge of the Skyclaves to me.

Seeing Hideaway come back is really cool and fits the set's flavor well. They all seem fairly strong in the right decks, but the red one randomly being 5-color kind of sucks for commander.

Slip out the Back is a cool take on Reality Ripple. It is more narrow, but it has the added benefit of pumping a creature.

All of the ascendancies seem flavorful, the jund one being my favorite

Professional Face-Breaker is an auto include in every mono red commander deck. Most R/X decks will want this as well.

Topiary Stomper could very well put creatures like Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf out of business in non-tribal, non-sacrifice focused decks.

Angel of Suffering is going straight into my Balthor the Defiled reanimator deck. She is very reminiscent of Vilis, Broker of Blood but provides card advantage at a different angle.

Body Launderer is probably a better piece in the Karmic Guide combo than Reveillark due to the cheaper mana cost. That being said, I'll probably just run both in my Tymna the Weaver/Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools deck.

Overall, the set has a couple intriguing individual cards, but I still don't find the set that interesting from either a game play or flavor perspective. Since a fair chunk of the precon legends have been spoiled already, I had originally planned to skip most of the set/precons and just pick up a couple individual cards. But this morning a yet-to-be-spoiled jund legend from the commander precon was leaked. I nearly spit out my tea when I saw the leak this morning. So I guess I'll be grabbing that precon, or at least that particular card if the rest of the deck isn't worth it.

Based on some of the spoilers/leaks so far, I suspect the monetary value in the precons will come from the new white cards (barring an expensive reprint...looking at you Dockside Extortionist).

RaidTheRevenge on Best Commanders in EDH [Tier List] Part 1

2 years ago

A very useful list! Thanks for updating it. In my opinion, Iname, Death Aspect, should be in a better tier category than Jank/Trash.

That ability to put as many Spirits as you want into your graveyard? That's rather useful! It makes cards like Patriarch's Bidding and Living Death put literally every creature in your deck onto the battlefield. Being in mono-black gives you ritual access and you can tutor for these pieces.

I recommend bumping Iname, Death Aspect up to either low or mid power. It's quite comparable to other cards in those levels like say, Balthor the Defiled.

EnbyGolem on Rare commander build?

2 years ago

Wow, great thread idea! I love seeing what other obscure commanders folks are running!

My original EDH deck was a creepy crawlies theme (insects, spiders, scorpions, and oozes) that used Xira Arien. I don’t really see any other decks with her at the helm. The deck is retired now but it was a pretty fun concept!

The deck I use the most now is my old-border jank deck with Balthor the Defiled as the commander. It is by far my favorite thing to play with :) Interestingly, Balthor seems to have a fair number more decks in his name. When I started my build almost 2 years ago, he had around 90 decks on EDHRec; I’m not sure why but he has double that now.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

2 years ago

Now that Junji is officially spoiled I can finally talk about him/her. Hot damn is that card awesome! It's going to fit in right at home in my Balthor the Defiled reanimator deck.

Also, Boseiju, Who Endures is already on the short list for strongest card (and will easily be the most expensive card) in the set. It seems extremely pushed.

EnbyGolem on What strange old commanders do …

2 years ago

This is no surprise but Balthor the Defiled is my all time favorite commander. That mass reanimation is just so splashy and fun to use, especially when it’s all forgotten old-school jank crawling out of the graveyard :)

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