Basalt Monolith

Artifact

Basalt Monolith doesn't untap during your untap step.

: Gain .

: Untap Basalt Monolith.

Discussion (47)

PorygonDust on Mmm Chrome

2 days ago

I would remove Cancel for Dovin's Veto, Crux of Fate for Torment of Hailfire, Diabolic Tutor for Beseech the Queen, Diabolic Edict for Go for the Throat, Personal Tutor for Lim-Dul's Vault, Laboratory Maniac for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Graceful Adept for Archon of Emeria, Blood Seeker for Judge's Familiar, Strionic Resonator for Isochron Scepter, Baleful Strix for Windfall, Nadier's Nightblade for Dramatic Reversal, and Revel in Riches for Basalt Monolith

CommanderBrutti on The OG Kozilek says No - PRIMER

3 weeks ago

What are your thoughts about Forsaken Monument ? It synergizes well with rocks/lands and you can also generate infinite mana Basalt Monolith ;)

Chrizz on Zirda, the Dawnwaker

3 weeks ago

Hey RelinquishedAttempts, thanks for your comment!

I can understand how this deck may seem a bit all over the place. I definitely took it in a different directions than most people do. Most people either use infinite combo's using Basalt Monolith and/or Grim Monolith, or they focus more on equipments. I think both of these strategies are not very interesting. My deck focusses on non-tap abilities that are made cheaper by Zirda to get a lot of value. Because of this, the deck includes many cards you normally don't see because the activation cost is too expensive. Some cards I just find cool to play, for example Chained to the Rocks is usually worse than Swords to Plowshares, but I just like the flavor of the former more. Likewise, Hundred-Handed One is not a very strong card, but it does have some synergy with Zirda, and I just think it's a very funny card. With that said, there may well be some cards I will swap later on, once I've played some more games with this deck (I have only played this deck in four games, due to covid).

As for your suggestions, Brion Stoutarm indeed seems out of place in this deck, since its cost is not reduced by Zirda. For this reason, I have definitely considered removing it, however, there are quite a lot of ways to get big creatures in this deck, for example: Evra, Halcyon Witness, Dark Depths, Phyrexian Processor, Custodi Soulbinders, Ignition Team, Clockwork Dragon, Wine of Blood and Iron, Mirage Mirror, Captivating Crew etc. But like I said, I should really play some more games and decide whether it fits well enough or not.

Dawn of Hope and Sacred Mesa could indeed work quite well. I'm personally not a huge fan of making many small tokens, so I don't want to center my deck around that, but some of them are fine. If after some more playing I discover that a card really doesn't work well, I will consider adding these instead.

As for Gerrard's Battle Cry, it seems almost strictly better than Leonin Sun Standard, however, I don't like having old-bordered cards in my decks. That's just a style thing, if it was reprinted I would definitely add it.

The meta in my playgroup is quite slow, so that's why the average CMC of this deck is a bit higher than what most would consider ideal, but in our meta, you really need to have a strong late game.

You also mentioned the price of the deck. The prices listed on tappedout are way higher than what I paid in Europe. For example, I paid €8 for Smothering Tithe, not $24. I paid €3 for Sword of the Animist instead of $12, and only €3 for Braid of Fire instead of $17.

I also took a look at your deck. I don't quite understand why you have so many direct damage spells, they don't really synergize as far as I can tell. Consequently, I also don't think the spell copying fits that well. Maybe your meta is more reactive than mine, but in my meta this would not make much sense.

I also see some cards that I have considered, but ultimately rejected. (Planar Bridge, Umbral Mantle, Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient), the reasonings are explained in the description of my deck. I have also considered Rings of Brighthearth, but decided against it because the value is usually not that high in my deck, because most abilities are non-tap abilities and activating the ability again is often cheaper or the same cost as paying the 2 mana. Staff of Domination was rejected for a similar reason, I think the value is just not that great in my deck (the life-gain is meh, most abilities are non-tap, so untapping is not necessary, and drawing a card for 3 is not great).

Furthermore I noticed that your deck has some equipment synergy (Stonehewer Giant, Godo, Bandit Warlord and Open the Armory) even though your deck only contains 4 equipments.

I think a big difference between our decks is that my deck has mostly non-tap abilities, and yours has more tap abilities. This explain why you put in cards like Manifold Key, Staff of Domination, Umbral Mantle and Voltaic Key

Neither strategy is wrong of course, but if there is one thing I would recommend, it is to reconsider whether the direct damage spells in your deck make sense. Thanks again for your comment and your suggestions. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Queen_Lulu on Simic exploitation

1 month ago

If you include Gemstone Array, you can go infinite with Basalt Monolith. Monolith generates infinite colerless mana, and the Array filters that into infinite colored mana allowing you to use your commander to put every creature in your library into play. You should also run artifact search cards like Fabricate to get ahold of your Monolith and Array easier.

Allimand on She's a Grave-Digger! (Sidisi zombie army)

1 month ago

One of my favorite zombies to run is Phyrexian Delver because reanimate on a creature is usually pretty dang good. He is a zombie as well, so that helps.

No Mesmeric Orb and Basalt Monolith combo?

Daedalus19876 on To Drown the World in Death: Araumi EDH [PRIMER]

1 month ago

Testing out some temporary changes: Dakmor Salvage, Golgari Thug, Darkblast, Body Double, Fierce Guardianship, Obsessive Stitcher, and Unearth over Basalt Monolith, Demonic Tutor, Mana Drain, Notion Thief, Court of Cunning, Academy Ruins, and Forbid.

smilodex on Ishkanah, Grafwidow Commander COMBO Deck

1 month ago

Thanks for your comment. I am very happy about such comments, as it is difficult to keep an eye on every possible combination with over a thousand commanders, especially with such a commander like Ishkanah, which you don't meet in your LGS every day. Thanks to your comment, I can see more of the potential of Ishkanah. I you want to tune up your deck, I have some recommendations for that:

I would exchange:

• Panharmonicon has only 3 targets + your commander... I think that's not efficien enough I would rather play this beast of a card: Ohran Frostfang because this card converts your spiders into carddrawing killer spiders.
• Far Wanderings for Cultivate because it's more reliable and effective
• Vessel of Nascency for Jarad's Orders because this card is just a perfect tutor for decks like this
• Blood for Bones for Victimize
• Is Witchbane Orb one of your meta picks, because a lot of your opponents play curses or burn? If not, I would rather play more carddraw because you have to less of it in your deck. Play Sylvan Library (or Phyrexian Arena) instead
• Drown in Filth with either another good removal like Abrupt Decay; Caustic Caterpillar; Plaguecrafter (Force of Despair, Darkblast, Snuff Out, Force of Vigor, Tragic Slip etc.)
• Cut 2 Forests and a Swamp for Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip, Khalni Ambush  ^Flip & Hagra Mauling  ^Flip
• Grapple with the Past for Fiend Artisan/Phyrexian Arena/Opposition Agent
• Entomb for any other tutor like Demonic, Vampiric, Grim Worldly Tutor etc. or Buried Alive

I would play as many cool utility lands with a sacrifice effect and as many fetch lands as possible because they're needed for Delirium and have also great potential with the MVP in every graveyard deck Life from the Loam:

• Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanse/Ash Barrens/Jund Panorama
• Prismatic Vista/Verdant Catacombs; Windswept Heath/Wooded Foothills/Bloodstained Mire etc. (If they're out of budget, you just can play the cool and cheaper utility lands and you'll be fine) Other cool lands: Grim Backwoods!!; Geier Reach Sanitarium, Drownyard Temple Phyrexian Tower, Emergence Zone, Haunted Fengraf, Buried Ruin I would also add Deserted Temple because it can produce together with Cabal Coffers + Rings of Brighthearth infinite black mana.

Carddraw or Cardadvantage:

• Ohran Frostfang!!
• Driven / Despair!!
• Sylvan Library!!
• Night's Whisper
• Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• Phyrexian Arena!!
• Journey to Eternity  ^Flip
• Phyrexian Reclamation
• Genesis
• Fauna Shaman/Birthing Pod/Fiend Artisan/Survival of the Fittest/Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Other good finishers/ combo pieces:

• Altar of the Brood / Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat
• Craterhoof Behemoth or the budget version: End-Raze Forerunners / Overrun
• Triumph of the Hordes

Well, I'm sure that you already know what other options there are to tune up the deck. If you want to win consitenly I would add more ways to produce infinte mana like Nim Deathmantle + Priest of Gix + Ashnod's Altar or Magus of the Coffers + Staff of Domination OR another unigue and complicated way to filter infinite colorless mana with Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth is together with Mirage Mirror and a Swamp...

To make the whole thing more consistent you have play all green and black tutors, play fast mana like the Moxes, Mana Crypt/-Vault, Manadorks (Elvish Mystic/Elves of Deep Shadow/Llanowar Elves etc. and pack some premium removal in the deck to raise the power level. If you're interested we can brew a fringe competetive list together.

Tzefick on A possible new legendary artifact: …

1 month ago

That certainly changes the deal.

5 CMC is still a steep price, but I figure White would possibly want an effect like this to double their manarocks. Colorless certainly would.

What kinda worries me now, is the classic Basalt Monolith (and I suppose Grim Monolith as well) + this + a means to negate the damage (like Circle of Protection: Artifacts or Personal Sanctuary) is infinite mana and that leads to infinite damage at instant speed. But then again, there are quite a few combos with the monoliths, so that cat is probably out of the bag. And this is still a 5 CMC card, so it should be possible to do some powerful things in conjunction with other powerful cards.

Personally I would prefer a cheaper and more limited version that functions as mana ramp - kinda like an Overabundance but for mana rocks. Like:

---

Name

Legendary Artifact

Whenever you activate a mana ability of an artifact you control, add one mana of any type that permanent produced, X deals 1 damage to you.

---

Simply put it adds an additional mana to each of your mana generating artifacts by pinging your face. This is even easier to combo with Basalt Monolith so perhaps there should be a clause to only work the first time an artifact taps for mana each turn. It still requires other mana rocks to function at all, so I think the low CMC is acceptable because it is so narrow. Playtesting may prove a need for a CMC of 3.

But that is meant as a personal mana accelerator and not a damage tool. Since you named your card Hedron Cannon, I suppose the offensive side weighs more to you? And perhaps the political? I went away from that because it would create a trigger every time an opponent tapped a mana artifact, which could be tedious in gameplay - kinda like would you like to pay one?.