Balustrade Spy

Creature — Vampire Rogue

Flying

When this enters, target player reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a land card, then puts those cards into their graveyard.

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
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

capwner on One-card wins

1 month ago

So here's an idea you may be familiar with...a one-card win: That is, a card that wins the game or initiates a winning line by itself without needing any other pieces. Just cast that one card and boom, you're in a position to win. This seems very OP because a 1 card combo is of course easier to assemble than 2-or-more card combos, and besides being easy to assemble I think it improves your resilience because it's easy to recur or topdeck a single card, and initial card investment is lower so you have more potential space in hand for interaction or a backup plan. The downside would be a lot of these either cost a lot of mana or require a lot of build around, or both. So some obvious examples of this would be cards like Tooth and Nail that tutor up multiple parts of a 2-part combo. Shared Summons is another card that, given enough mana, can win by itself say by assembling Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista. These double tutor cards are especially sweet because they can also find protection if you already have part of the combo or other tutors. I think Hoarding Broodlord is similar because it tutors for Saw in Half to find more combo pieces, so this wins by itself too. By extension, in the decks that have these, regular Demonic TutorGC or Solve the Equation become a 1-card wins as well! Next there are some weirder ones...there's straight up Enter the Infinite which if resolved should certainly give you the ability to win on the spot with a million counterspell backups. On the opposite end of the curve, Doomsday initiates a combo line by itself but is slower; you either need to pass the turn or have a means of drawing a card to continue comboing. Similarly, Selective Memory in an all-spells deck can exile your whole deck besides Thoracle, then draw her and win next turn. Of course in the all-spells camp there's also Balustrade Spy, Undercity Informer and Goblin Charbelcher which can win on the spot, these are probably the best and actually competitively played archetypes, and Hermit Druid combos similarly. Hmm.... what else, I guess there are tons of 1-card combos with commanders, like Etali + Food Chain, Niv Mizzet + Curiosity, and so on. Those are pretty close to 1-card wins but I would say a different genre of combo than the ones I am discussing. Another card I think fits is Timesifter, with the right build this card can very likely result in a win by itself, though it is totally non-deterministic! I think as a 5 drop artifact, compared with the mana demands of some of the other cards mentioned, this is a very competitive option for a potentially game-ending effect on a single card. I love Timesifter lol. What else? Other tutors like IntuitionGC and Gifts UngivenGC can assemble breach combo by themselves in Jeskai decks with Sevinne's Reclamation. Ad NauseamGC and other mass-draw effects scoop up huge portions of the deck and win from there. Anything that can tutor multiple times like Increasing Ambition or Razaketh, the Foulblooded can win by itself. Goblin Recruiter I'm pretty sure sets up Conspicuous Snoop combo by itself, maybe that's a win next turn one. Approach of the Second Sun but that's REALLY slow by itself. This far down the line I'm tempted to even say Stoneforge Mystic and/or Stonehewer Giant because you can play a line where you get Sword of Hearth and Home to flicker her, get Kaldra Compleat then get Worldslayer and that's baaasically a win 2 turns later from just a Stoneforge. On that topic, MLD spells in general come pretty close to being 1-card wins IMO by relying more on overall deck construction to out-recover opponents, so similar to a Timesifter resolving a Jokulhaups should usually win it for the MLD player if they built their deck right, and if nobody has Tef Pro <- another 1 card win here lol.

I feel like I've blabbed enough, I'd like to know which cards I've missed and what your favorite 1-card wins are? Or even cool Commander + 1 wins if you know of some lesser-known ones. Hey I guess Magda, Brazen Outlaw and Godo, Bandit Wardlord both win by themselves too, right? But kind of slowly, Godo needs haste and Magda needs dwarves/treasures. Also for commanders, I think both Captain Sisay and Sisay, Weatherlight Captain can assemble wins by themselves, slowly. Also Yisan, Wanderer Bard.

Anyways thanks for reading if you did, hopefully you got something useful out of this wincon rant. One-card wins are a big principle I try to use in my deckbuilding especially at higher powers and I think trying to enable the wackier ones provides some fun deckbuilding challenge and is really rewarding when you can pull it off.

leovolt884_ on Dimir... uh.. Ramp Mill..

1 month ago

Balaam__ The deck would rather have permanent mana sources. There's a fairly low curve in the deck and it is control oriented so extra mana which can be used long term is much more beneficial than short term mana acceleration, as it will usually let you cast an extra spell on many turns. Rituals are much better in decks which aim to combo off as soon as possible, or have very explosive turns which this deck doesn't. Cards in your hand are a resource, and in control you want your cards to provide as much long term value for you as possible to counter the fact that a meaningful percentage of your deck are cards which strictly interact with and slow your opponent. Also triple black mana is just not very useful here. It only really helps cast Balustrade Spy and Grisly Spectacle. There are no 3 drops in the deck which don't also require a blue pip of mana and a 3rd of the 4 drops in the deck require double blue pips. It also doesn't really aid in replicating Stream of Thought. That all being said the best value you can get out of a dark ritual is playing a spy + Priest of the Haunted Edge on an early turn, or squeezing out a piece of removal on the opponents turn which you wouldn't normally have the mana for. However that removal can only target one creature so you're spending 2 cards to destroy 1 of your opponents.

Anyways, there's definitely room for rituals in spy decks and if I'm not mistaken they're used in almost every spy combo deck, they just don't really fit into this one. To be clear, I don't think this deck is very good, I don't particularly like it, and would say its a few steps below the decks which I'm more proud of. I also think a "turbo mill" version of this would be better and more interesting and Dark Ritual would be very valuable there to play early spies to setup Jace's Phantasm or maybe to help pay for something like multiple Persistent Petitioners in one turn.

This whole comment hinges on the fact that the wincon is NOT Lotleth Giant and that you are milling the opponent rather than yourself

I may private this deck but I'd rather leave it out there for people to learn from some of the deckbuilding traps this deck falls for. I'm interested in trying to elevate this deck concept to my more current deckbuilding ideas/standards by turning it into a rakdos deck with multifunctionality. 2 modes of either milling yourself or the opponent, using cards which benefit from both and making better use of the sideboard in best of 3 or friendly games. I really like the idea of a deck which has multiple directions to play it, something highly adaptive to playstyle preference and matchups without just being a pile of goodstuff. Currently I have a midrange infect deck which sort of scratches this itch with both aggro and proliferate wincons. If you're interested in me trying to assemble a pile of optimized rakdos jank let me know

Balaam__ on Dimir... uh.. Ramp Mill..

1 month ago

In the beginning you discuss the need to ramp out quickly to make good use of an early Balustrade Spy. I notice there’s no Dark Ritual here, even though you’re in the right color(s) for it. I can’t decide if it’s for price reasons (the cheapest version costs less than Darkness but it isn’t as intrinsic to the gameplan as that card is) or you just don’t need to run it that badly, that what you have here works well enough already. Thoughts?

legendofa on pauper spy dread return

2 years ago

Good information! I was rushing the Balustrade Spy and Dread Return in playtesting, so ensuring you don't hit any lands makes sense. It took some aggressive mulligans, but the playtesting feels a lot more cohesive. With permission, I'm going to borrow this idea and see where I end up with it. I'm still learning and feeling my way through Pauper, and this deck has pretty much everything I like.

MeneerDutchy on Henzie “The Toolman” Taylor ETB

3 years ago

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wallisface on

3 years ago

Some thoughts:

• Merfolk Secretkeeper and Wall of Lost Thoughts aren't worth running. If you compare mill to a burn deck, they're the equivalent of running a worse Shock (doing the equivalent of around 1.6 damage). That's a pretty awful return as far as milling, regardless of mana cost.

• Similarly to the above Balustrade Spy is awful, it's only going to get somewhere between 1-3 cards on average, for 4 mana. In all honesty, there's a good reason why mill decks don't run any creatures outside of Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab - it's because everything else just isn't worth it.

• I get you want fetches for the crabs, and that's probably outside of your budget - but Evolving Wilds is not an alternative. Having lands enter tapped is disastrous, as it will slow down your tempo faaaar too much, and give your opponent too much of a chance to win. If you want ways to trigger crabs multiple times, i'd suggest Field of Ruin.

• You have enough lands, you have absolutely no reason to run Dimir Signet

• Mind Funeral gives terrible returns for its mana value, and will often cause the deck to lose to itself by not getting enough cards milled. Focus on running full playsets of the better mill cards (Fractured Sanity and Maddening Cacophony) instead

• Both Crypt Incursion and Archive Trap should be mainboard, not sideboard.

• Jace Beleren has no place in this deck. 3 mana is slow, and he doesn't do anything for you. You can't reasonably expect him to ever be able to ultimate, so often he's just going to draw a single card then die.

• I would also ditch Drowned Secrets, because its return is just soo low - you have to play 4 blue spells after this card just to mill 8 cards. Many mill-specific cards (i.e. Maddening Cacophony) can just do that on their own. Drowned Secrets is unlikely to give you enough benefit during a game even if its played early, but becomes a terrible late-game draw.

• Your deck currently has no interaction at all, which is going to put you in a really rough spot as most decks will be able to out-race you. Mill needs to throw the opponents plans off-track to get enough time to secure the win. I would have expected to see playsets of both Drown in the Loch and Fatal Push here, as well as a 3-4 copies of Extirpate to remove your opponents best cards from their deck.

• While being at 65 cards might not seem much above 60, its going to lead to you having overall worse hands and draws, in both strength and consistency. You should always be aiming to cut a deck back to 60 cards.

This link here is a good example of a competitive mill deck - I think you should be aiming towards something like this, just accommodating for your particular budget

YamishiTheWickedOne on Sexy Vampires

4 years ago

If you're looking for further advice still, here's my list of best 1 mana vampires:

Viscera Seer

Knight of the Ebon Legion

Stromkirk Noble

Indulgent Aristocrat

Insolent Neonate

More niche 1-drops include

Falkenrath Gorger

Vampire Lacerator

Vicious Conquistador

Skymarcher Aspirant really only if you wanna be hyper aggressive and run like 8-12 lords.

If you want my opinion on the best vampires in MtG in no particular order:

Viscera Seer

Gatekeeper of Malakir

Bloodghast

Knight of the Ebon Legion

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Gifted Aetherborn

Stromkirk Noble

Olivia Voldaren

Champion of Dusk (because Sorin's a thing, before 5 mana was really pushing it)

and a narrow niche that makes him the best vampire in the game but ONLY in manaless dredge: Balustrade Spy

lagotripha on

4 years ago

Hi, can I check how competitive you'd like to be? Casual tables, FNMs, Tournaments?

I've got a few landfall ideas on the back burner that you might be able to make work with this. White black will rely more heavily on supporting cards than other landfall lists as 'lands matter' hasn't been printed on many cards in those colours. Overall, I'd look at being a lot lower on the curve, playing 1/2/3 drops that affect the boad - bodies, killing creatures or similar.

Try to focus budget on lands. Especially with landfall. Evolving wilds/Terramorphic Expanse/Warped Landscape for pure budget, the more expensive fetches when you can. Shocks can let you cheat on the exact colours of the fetches. Lands are the most important part of (almost) any deck, and with landfall that is emphasised somewhat.

Options;

Steppe Lynx. Most of the other options are in other colours, but decks it is in basically just 'play 1 drops, attack, crack fetches, maybe burn'.

Knight of the White Orchid is a great body with ramp, while Loyal Warhound a solid extra 4 copies. If you can turn them on, they make 'being on the draw' games a lot better - something not a lot of cards can say. Solemn Simulacrum is good. Especially if you get it back from the graveyard.

Felidar Retreat/Retreat to emeria are incredible value engines if you can turn them on. The rest of the deck would be setting up for that and making use of it.

Sword of the Animist + Sword of Hearth and Home points to an equipment and attacking list.

Unearth + graveyard matters stuff, self mill and bloodghast shenanigans.

Black has land destruction, which is almost like ramp - a deck that gets itself lots of basic lands and casts Smallpox will work.

Balustrade Spy/Endless Horizons. Yes its dumb, yes it catches people by surprise.