Basalt Monolith

Artifact

Basalt Monolith doesn't untap during your untap step.

: Gain .

: Untap Basalt Monolith.

Discussion (51)

PookandPie on Mono blue Urza

2 days ago

Oh. Well, in that case, the general way Urza generates infinite mana are the following combos:

Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal, which you run.

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth, which generates infinite colorless by copying the untap ability (IE, you pay 5 to untap and copy the untap with Rings, and you can tap it for 3 twice. You generate 6 mana doing this while only expending 5).

Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact, which makes infinite colorless by reducing the cost of the untap ability.

Grim Monolith + Power Artifact works in similar vein to Basalt Monolith, but Grim only works with Power Artifact.

Muddle the Mixture lets you search for Power Artifact, Grim Monolith, Dramatic Reversal, and Isochron Scepter, which can be very valuable- so good call on running it already.

Ancient Tomb can be a nice little bump in speed if you need it, and doesn't take up any room for spell slots. Saprazzan Skerry doesn't look like much but I've gotten a good number of t2 Urzas because of it and 1 accelerator.

If budget isn't a concern, Transmute Artifact would be worth consideration as well.

Anyway, best of luck in cEDH!

hyped1221 on Syr Konrad, the Grim EDH

3 days ago

Aaaand Mesmeric Orb, Basalt Monolith, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are in. Used up some trade credit to get the combo in there.

LegitHuman46 on List of all infinite combos 2.0

3 days ago

Here are some combos:

Walk the Aeons + Life from the Loam +Azusa, Lost but Seeking Infinite turns.

Fist of Suns + Morophon, the Boundless + Kessig Malcontents + Stormfront Riders Infinite Damage

Nyxbloom Ancient + Basalt Monolith Infinite colorless mana.

Viscera Seer + Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Murderous Redcap Infinite Damage.

Myr Galvanizer + Myr Galvanizer + Palladium Myr Infinite colorless mana.

Scholar of the Ages + Thassa, Deep-Dwelling +Chance for Glory + Tale's End Infinite turns IN STANDARD as of GRN to THB.

Ilharg, the Raze-Boar + Medomai the Ageless Infinite turns. Use Helm of the Host as an Ilharg replacement.

hyped1221 on Syr Konrad, the Grim EDH

5 days ago

Sumradagnoth - Not at this time. Certainly could slot in over quite a few cards I have on my list. I haven't tweaked this deck in a while as I haven't been playing it much. There are quite a few cards that are crazy with Syr Konrad that I don't have slotted. Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith, Living Death, Stinkweed Imp, Forever Young, etc. etc. I might make some changes once I get this deck back in my rotation (I have around 15 decks that I rotate in and out). I really enjoy how it plays currently though so changes might be quite a ways out. I'll certainly keep Eye Collector in mind though.

AlwaysSleepy on Urza Power Scepter

2 weeks ago

dingusdingo

I'm not sure how my comment may be construed to be idol worship lol. I'm providing an additional context.

So, for some of the card choices touched on, I think we have differing evaluations and overall opinions on cards. I'll just share for the record my quick evals for context:

I think Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth is just unplayable. I think both cards alone are not strong enough for play. I don't think Urza fixes them either. I get your point, Urza makes mana, and there's synergy. It shouldn't justify weak card choices. Urza in this case shaves off a small 1 mana from the investment for this pricy combo. From a cEDH perspective, regardless of Urza's improvement, it's unacceptable. Rings as value is undoubtedly too slow for the current meta.

I find Mishra's Workshop weakly tenable at best in EDH. You have to skew too much to make it a reasonable land, versus a ritual effect. By the time Workshop is consistently a land, I find, the deck has been weakened more than otherwise picking stronger cards.

The difference between Howling Mine and Winter Orb and crew (3ball included) is that the latter actually help you if untapped should Urza be gone. Mine will actively hurt you. Yes you can always try and time Urza to make it safer. Though realistically, people understand Urza is a major threat, and mini-combos with failure modes are not an acceptable power level for cEDH currently. I hold all cards to this metric. Narset's Reversal is another example I generally avoid playing unless specifically forced (like, in mono U). With Oracle Hulk being the prime metagame singularity, cards with failure modes in decks being taxed to interact is incorrect.

If you feel safe cutting some countermagic for artifacts, it's understandable as a deck building decision. Again though, I ask the question of really how much are you rushing Urza and just spinning the wheel that the issue with interaction density being higher somehow detracts overall. I don't think Urza can be built agnostic of the current meta. If you think it can be done leaner, sure, go ahead. But that's starting from behind as Urza doesn't win the race war. I'm not convinced this strategy is completely sound.

Look man, the issue isn't card choices, or who made the list, or what an opinion on cards is. It's that the changes in deck building decisions somehow led to this discussion on people being stupid sheep without any capacity to think. If someone disagrees with you, that shouldn't disqualify them as blind followers. If it does, the discourse isn't in good faith.

Theory arguments should stand alone and don't have to be backed by anything else.

dingusdingo on Urza Power Scepter

2 weeks ago

AlwaysSleepy If you can't understand why I would point out when a 0 decks 1 post account logs in after two years to call me a fucktard, then there isn't much more to discuss on that point.

As far as whether or not you suck, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I enjoy it when people with less or more experience post, as long as its discussing cards or linking new ones.

As far as building Urza midrange versus artifact focused, yes I understand why the choices are made. This just keeps coming back to some basic facts though. The commander makes mana from artifacts, and then uses lots of mana to get free spells. Running 12 counterspells is going to mess with Urza activations. In a vacuum, a counterspell is going to be better than a trinisphere, but do you know what card the deck always has access to, every single game, from turn 1? Urza! What does Urza do? Give mana from artifacts, and use mana to get free spells. Do you know what free spells are unfortunate to get from Urza activations? Counterspells!

To respond to your card comments

Legacy's Allure - I'm glad we are in agreement that this card should go.

Homeward Path - This card is very common as tech in Selvala and Yisan decks. Gilded Drake is a very popular card that can go into most competitive decks with blue as a piece of removal. Both Yisan and Selvala are extremely commander dependent while being mono colored, with the Crop Rotation already there in many builds. Just because the card is not run in the Shaper list does not mean the card does not see play, it is tech that shows up. Since the card makes those decks cry big fat tears when it is resolved, it goes in. Which brings us to

Pithing Needle and friends. There are enough of these effects and they are so rancid for this deck that you must be aware of them when you build. It is simply asinine to ignore how dire this card resolving is for this deck. The bigger problem with these types of cards is that this deck runs so little removal and places all emphasis on counterspells. As far as Needle appearing or not, just because it doesn't show up in a big name brewer list doesn't mean the card isn't played. I have seen many competitive commander decks slot this card. It is a strong hate card against many commanders, the card that everyone always has access to (if they run Homeward Path lol). This list crumples to turn 1 Pithing Needle and it serves as proof of what the card can do. 1 mana and 1 card to lock out a player from winning is significantly better than a counterspell. The card is mana denial against uncracked fetches (they can't crack in response to the naming), it hoses entire commanders, its great against the random planeswalkers that show up, its amazing against the random Animatou deck that showed up, it shuts off so many infinite combos and is such a strong answer that can go in any deck. P.S. it could even go into an Urza build

Aether Spellbomb - My thoughts exactly. Goes in for Allure

Recurring Insight - I can believe that anyone who has resolved it has won. There are caveats to that statement though. You're giving up big opportunity cost as you could have another card in that slot doing something else before 6 mana. It is also hard to protect it resolving, because it costs 6 mana. Let me use an analogy to make one last point. Just because I won by tutoring from Diabolic Tutor does not mean that Demonic Tutor is the same. You can run sub-optimal cards that lead to winning, that category would most likely encompass 99+% of decks made.

Mishra's Workshop - This card once again used to show flaws in deckbuilding. The commander focuses on artifacts. This deck doesn't have an artifact density high enough to run Workshop and put it to use. It runs 19 artifacts. This card and the commander make big mana for or from artifacts. After the lands, there are 68 slots. 19 are artifacts. This is another overall design flaw rather than weakness between the card and the commander.

Howling Mine - I agree that this card has risk associated with playing it. This is why timing is crucial. If played when Urza is on the board, you are able to advance meaningfully with an extra and card every turn for and 1 card. Howling Mine isn't great in a vacuum, but once again it goes really well with that one card we always have access to. Even if later Urza is removed, we got advantage from it first and we got it earlier. Giving all your opponents 1 extra card (so 3 total) on turn 5 is negated by getting an extra card for yourself on turn 3 and 4. Getting access to the cards earlier for us is worthwhile even if on a later turn our opponents are collectively getting 3 cards to our 3 cards. Timing is just required to make this card effective. I find it hilarious that this list realizes the benefit in running Winter Orb and Static Orb but glances over the same synergy with Howling Mine. Do you see how those cards also hurt you without your commander?

Trinisphere - Its totally not cut, just not in the list. The authors can put flowery words next to it but this card should be an auto include. Not having it here makes me question why.

Ensnaring Bridge - Not the best possible include but worth a consider if the deck is more artifact centric. Can hose down Tymna and also some win cons. Urza plays well with a small hand and a fatty board.

As far as "You're just going to get flashed on" I'm not advocating for eliminating counterspells completely. It could easily go down to 8 and you will still see counters in your opener. The forgiving mulligan rules of multiplayer with the added new London Mulligan makes it easy to go back for one if you see yourself sitting across from TnT.

Expedition Map - Leads to Tabernacle and leads to Inventor's Fair. You can use to go to Academy Ruins to plop back on top to continue to toolbox lands. Its a tutor in a relevant type that can become an engine in games where you have more space. In more artifact centric builds you can extend more into non-basic lands as fetch targets, because you will need less blue for counterspells and 6 mana draw spells and Legacy's Allure.

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth is a usable combo in certain contexts. Gonna keep going back to this idea that we always have Urza in the command zone as being important to the development of the deck. Urza gives us A LOT OF MANA. Rings has a great effect, but needs A LOT OF MANA. See where I'm going here? When we get Rings activations onto fetches, we are double thinning and ramping ourselves, but we're also priming the deck for BETTER URZA ACTIVATIONS. You also get infinite mana loops with Codex Shredder and any card that goes to GY like a spell. Basalt is definitely a downgrade from Grim, but Rings is such an upgrade from Power Artifact for usefulness outside combo and mana isn't as much of an issue in Urza so I think its worthwhile.

As far as the rest of what you wrote, yeah nice dude this is a $4000 durdle list and you are out here defending it. These brewers are so isolated in their own meta they make absurd card choices and overall deckbuilding decisions. Yeah this list is trash dude, and my comments about people being sheep are funnier with every reply. Why are you out here schilling for this list? Idol worship or idle time?

triproberts12 on EDH vs cEDH

2 weeks ago

Honestly, I think power level really does matter. I would play an ABU dual/fetch manabase, Rings of Brighthearth+Basalt Monolith, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, etc. in every one of my decks. The thing is, setting the expectation that decks will have that kind of "oops, I win on turn 3" power excludes a lot of people in the way a high buy-in at a poker table does.

I do think that makes EDH and cEDH different formats, because certain cards like Force of Will and Echoing Truth lose their utility at underpowered tables. Practically, though, I don't think this should change anything. There are 20,000 Magic cards, and EDH is a singleton format. EDH players could live with a Protean Hulk reban, same as cEDH players can live with the inexplicable ban on Primeval Titan, when casuals are far more likely to be packing Hour of Revelation and Nylea's Intervention than turn-1 Reanimate.

Izzy- on The Edgiest Mono-White Deck You’ve Ever Seen

3 weeks ago

I'd consider cutting Answered Prayers if its in here for the lifegain. The additional effect of Answered Prayers, of becoming an angel, I think is negligible. Maybe consider Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, which continues the lifegain theme, is less mana and is another body to trigger other similar effects. Daxos additionally gives you a decent blocker if needed. While he is a little more easy to remove given two typings, you do have multiple enchantment recur effects to consider it.

You got a couple of Snow-Lands, so maybe consider, On Thin Ice, its removal, and can be recurred here if removed.

While Mana Vault, and Mana Crypt allow for fast mana plus the bonus of self-inflicting damage for Darien, Basalt Monolith seems a little less helpful here. It does provide fast mana, but only once and then it usually sits there until you have the resources to untap it. I'd consider Extraplanar Lens it comes the same turn and provides asymmetrical ramp for you (unless your meta runs a lot of snow plains?). Even if Extraplanar isn't your preference, I still would prefer to fit other ramp in here besides Basalt, which usually shines in decks that can untap it to abuse of it more.

That said it seems like a great deck, I've seen a my fair share of Darien decks, and this seems like one of the more consistent and fun ones to play.