Barl's Cage
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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
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Barl's Cage

Artifact

: Target creature doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.

Hybrow on How to Burn Your Bridges

2 years ago

dont know how many mana sinks you are looking for.. but i recently just added two to my yurlok deck Yurlok for the ween

Dont know how they will play yet, because i havent had a chance to play since adding them.. but Shield of the Ages and Barl's Cage seemed like good choices. Ideally, i would love a Sensei's Divining Top but the price is just out of my range right now.

SilverBrood on DOGS

3 years ago

Undamageable, 3/2 deathtouch trampling lifelinker? Seems pretty aggro.

Maybe get those slow purphoros auras out and consider replacing Supply Runners and them with some good early removal? I love that the ordeal has a dog kicking a dudes butt though.

Even just Soul Tithe or Suppression Bonds / Bound by Moonsilver might be justifiable, but pacifism and burn are lower costed. Barl's Cage is sorta on theme?

Consider land improvements after playtesting.

Not feeling the 5 drop dogs much. Maybe drop CMC on some and turn 1 or 2 into a larger body that you could call the kennel owner?

demorome on Pretending to be Mairsil (Deck in Progress)

3 years ago

Fellwar Stone and Barl's Cage would be fairly flavorful inclusions, though they probably won't do any impactful combos. To enable Mairsil, you might want some more cards to dump cards into your graveyard, like Buried Alive, Jace's Archivist, Entomb, Thrill of Possibility or Frantic Search. Something to protect him and give him haste, like Lightning Greaves, could also come in handy.

ShreddedByCrows on

5 years ago

Pikobyte The idea reminded me of so many cool games that I could not help myself writing you down a novel!

And I totally understand your point. Always seeking for more ''competitiveness'' fastly becomes boring and kills all the fun of EDH. That's why I dismantled Hokori in the end - even if it was solid and flavorful, it was just too disruptive and unfun to face for other players.

If you like cards that we rarely see, give a try to Barl's Cage . I only tried it once in a control-ish Azorius Taigam, Ojutai Master deck and I was amazed by its potential. It's still pretty much a funny card, and isn't too disruptive either.

If you feel like you're still lacking card draw, there are multiple viable options you don't actually run. As mentioned in my previous comment, Dawn of Hope is likable. Armistice is playable and good at politics. Alms Collector is a suitable meta depending tool. Tamiyo's Journal , Book of Rass (the book basically is a non-black, lot worse, Erebos/Greed) are both a bit expensive for their respective effects, but they're also effective if you really need that.

If you don't mind giving it a look, as I'm looking for some feedbacks to ameliorate my own brews, here's the last of my EDH decklist I updated on this site : Ishai and Ludevic

ShreddedByCrows on

5 years ago

Hey there!

Nice brew, neat idea to counter those clunky and annoying Vannifars!

As smne who played Mono-W Stax for a while, with the amazing Hokori, Dust Drinker at the helm, I'll share with you what thoughts inspire me your sweet Linvala decklist.

(Even if it has already been pointed out before, I wanna say that I also love the Urborg combo. It's unexpectable and freakin' gud!)

Let's start by the beginning: mana fixation. Extraplanar Lens is insane in every monocolored archetype, so it's a quite logic inclusion you made here. Nonetheless, I suggest you to go for Snow-covered lands to synergize better with it - that way you won't give a lift to your opponents playing white.

Pearl Medallion and Sol Ring are basics, nothing really worth to say about it. Thran Dynamo and Worn Powerstone are more debatable. I don't know what is your budget issue, but if you want a competitve list, Mana Crypt , Mana Vault , Grim Monolith , Mind Stone , Everflowing Chalice etc. are all better options. Dynamo and Powerstone aren't bad cards, but they just come after those ones if you really do need a solid ''ramp'' package.

Opal Palace feels badly slow and ineffective in a monocolored stax deck. You won't win the game by taking up the board with your creatures armed of a little +1/+1 counter.

You have notable exclusions in your lands for a mono-white. Eiganjo Castle is the first card that comes through mind. Buried Ruin also is a recursive tool you should consider, even over Inventors' Fair . If you manage to find one, Ancient Tomb has its place there replacing Temple of the False God .

At its final shape, my Hokori decklist was running a powerful Crucible of Worlds package including Wasteland , Strip Mine , Dust Bowl , Flagstones of Trokair , Lotus Vale and City of Traitors . I was up to 39 lands, not counting Maze of Ith .

Now let's jump straight into your gameplan!

So... you're planning to focus your eyes on ruining Vannifar's day. To help with this strategy of being the nasty ''combo killer'' guy, I think you should put in some additional pieces of disruption.

That said, I don't know which Vannifar's version(s) your playgroup perform with. If it's a Thornbite Staff / Intruder Alarm one, things would be easier to calm down and you won't need such a heavy stax package - you'll need more single-target/multi-target removals though. And if it's the other one, certainly the most popular now (and also the most powerful/absurd), based on many shenanigans around the creatures Vannifar brings to the table, you'll need more stax support.

One of the very best cards you could add to stop all those creature-centered combos is Humility . This card is broken, this card is stupid. It even disables etb abilities. The only way your opponent has to go through is to destroy it with a creatureless source / or with a ''casting'' effect (like Ulamog has).

Single-handly, Humility tears apart most of the competitive Vannifar lists. However, based on the fact that it is still fragile to enchantments/permanents removals, you'll have to build a defensive shield for your stuff. Vannifar lists often keep a strong package of cheap permanents' removals in their pocket (like Beast Within for example), so you'll need to play carefully.

There's a lot of different ways you can head in order to reinforce your permanents' presence on the battlefield. A pretty simple and most of the time effective, despite of its ccm, you already included is Avacyn, Angel of Hope . I think you still lack a way to cheat her casting cost out to make her a stable and destructive power house.

Stax ''enchantment'' strategy is imo one of the most viable and solid strategy. With Academy Rector (amazing alongside your High Market ), you'll be able to search the exact piece you need to lock the game in your favor.

Notable stax exclusions :

Other cards to consider :

A bunch of meta depending stax tools :

Cards I'd cut from your list :

  • Martyr's Bond > Slow and unreliable on this brew. As you're not sacrificing any kind of permanent on your own, you'll struggle to get any value out of it outside of a lost political blast deflagrating when the game should already be over. Unless you add in some cards like World Queller , it defenitly doesn't deserve a slot imo.

  • Norn's Annex > 4 life + 3 mana for a worse Ghostly Prison . And I wouldn't even play Ghostly Prison there.

  • Bishop of Rebirth > a lot of people seems to give love to this card recently. However, I personally think it is just a bad inclusion. You spend 5 mana on a understated body and you have to wait a whole turn before getting value out of it IF you are in the researched scenario. There will be times where you have Boots or Greaves on board and this will be an insane mini-Sun Titan, but the situation is too rare to justify its presence.

  • Sublime Archangel > No real interest here. Good creature but doesn't provide anything for the stax strategy.

  • Gift of Immortality / True Conviction > weird ''win con'' heavily situational cards based on creatures. There is some logic behind Gift, but it's just too much of a unreliable idea. True Conviction has nothing to do here... it's 6 mana spend to lose the control on the game. If you're searching for card advantage and a bit of healing, go for the brand new Dawn of Hope (also is a good mana sink).

  • Rout > There are plenty better aoe in W. Wrath of God , Sunscour , Fumigate , Day of Judgment , End Hostilities , etc. If you want the instant option, just run Vedalken Orrery .

  • Blackblade Reforged > intersting alternative win con. Feels slow nonetheless.

  • Emeria Shepherd > too slow for my liking.

  • Whispersilk Cloak > can't understand what this does in a deck full of flyiers and tapping effects.

Finally, as you want to challenge Vannifar, which is a blue deck, you'll need something to deal with the classical Cyclonic Rift . Teferi's Protection is a good solution (and it could also protects you form a lot of various situations / removals / etc.), but I'm sure you can find a lot of other response.

I hope you'll find useful ideas in this comment. Thanks a lot for sharing this, it reminds me good times. Keep up the good work, keep up brewing!

Draw_Wurm on House of Cards

7 years ago

Been thinking about a few other cards with Horibo synergy. Mainly colourless cards that target creatures:

Lands

Shizo, Death's Storehouse. Produces mana symbol b. With Horibo, mana symbol bmana symbol tto kill target commander.

Urborg. Produces mana symbol b. With Horibo mana symbol tto kill.

Cabal Pit. Lifeloss, but an additional removal spell with Horobi at Threshold.

Maze of Ith\Mystifying Maze, go from defensive to tappable kills.

Tower of the Magistrate. Useful protection into a kill.

Artifacts

Echo Chamber. Copy their creature and kill it at the same time. Opponent chooses the creature.

Helm of Chatzuk. With Horibo mana symbol 1mana symbol t to kill target creature. No real utility without.

Baton of Morale\Sacred Armory. With Horobi mana symbol 2 to kill target creature. No real utility without.

Thran Forge. Higher cost, better utility.

Power Matrix. Without Horobi powers up one of our or opponents creatures. With Horobi becomes a mana symbol t Murder.

Soldevi Golem. mana symbol 4 5/3 that kills a creature when it untaps

Serrated Arrows. mana symbol 4 for 3 x murders.

Sentinel. Kills pretty much anything it can block with Horobi out.

Crenellated Wall. Blocker. mana symbol t to kill a creature with Horobi.

Contagion Engine. Potential wrath and Planeswalker boost.

Clockwork Hydra. 4/4 for mana symbol 5. With Horobi takes a creature with it when it attacks or blocks.

Belbe's Armor. With Horobi, mana symbol 0mana symbol t kill. Without, boost a creature on defense.

Barl's Cage. mana symbol 4cmc cost, but a useful effect in Horobi's absence.

Grim Poppet. mana symbol 7cmc for 3 x Murder at instant speed and a potential 4/4 blocker.

Erratic Portal. Tappable Murder with the ability to bounce our own creatures back to recur ETB effects.

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