Batterskull

Artifact — Equipment

Living weapon (When this Equipment enters the battlefield, create a 0/0 black Germ creature token, then attach this to it.)

Equipped creature gets +4/+4 and has vigilance and lifelink.

: Return Batterskull to its owner's hand.

Equip

Discussion (45)

Sultai_Sir on How's Kaldheim Looking to You? …

1 month ago

In my humble opinion, Kaldheim is looking like an amazing set. We haven't gotten any broken things, but they all look fun. Let's go over some of the future commanders of our hearts! I'm skipping over commanders that use fortell, as we don't have many cards for them. Oh, and the cards that don't interest me. My post, my rules!

• Magda, Brazen Outlaw: The dwarf commander we've all been waiting for! Dwarven Recruiter is finally good, and you can add in some spicy treasure/dragon synergies, too! I-I think we did it guys. We broke Dockside Extortionist. Oh, and Hellkite Tyrant is a must.

• Halvar, God of Battle  ^Flip: While pretty good in Voltron decks, he makes for the first artifact commander we've ever had, and I know my Inner Johnny is tickled at that fact. The Equipment side is also super cool, with being able to pay 4 mana to resuscitate one of your creatures. With some Phyrexian Altar + Ashnod's Altar janks, we can make a fun mono-white combo deck! Oh, and Batterskull says hi.

• Lathril, Blade of the Elves: I'm really psyched for this general. She looks like a way to make Golgari Elfball more viable, has a crazy, but not broken, activated ability, and is one of the only generals to make a usually too-competitive strategy fit for more casual tables. She has synergy up the wazoo with cards like Immaculate Magistrate and Timberwatch Elf. Oh, and one card that should be in every one of her decks, but is in zero so far, is Elder of Laurels. This card = broken in this deck, often turning your Lathril, Blade of the Elves into a four-digit power commander. Run it!

• Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider: Finally, Superfriends has some support! But seriously, this is just another Doubling Season with an upside on a stick for Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. If you want to be cruel and run this bad boy as a commander, stax/superfriends seems the way to go. Say hello to Smokestack!

• Toski, Bearer of Secrets: And people said Green couldn't draw cards! Why did they have to print another Edric, Spymaster of Trest? This card is also an indestructible blocker with cards like Seedborn Muse and Quest for Renewal. Oh, and it can't be countered. Why? Because green.

• Valki, God of Lies  ^Flip: This card is super fun. It's like a Lazav, the Multifarious but you get to use your opponent's creatures. But where this 'lil trickster god really shines is in the 99. But more specifically, in the 99 of The First Sliver. See, you can cascade into Valki, God of Lies  ^Flip, but instead of casting the small side, you can just windmill-slam Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor on Turn 4. Fun!

• Sarulf, Realm Eater: Golgari Control is a thing, I guess? Stack your deck like card:Skullbrair, the Walking Grave does, but instead of going for the voltron combos, instead, you wipe your opponent's board every turn. Evolutionary Escalation is a must. Who cares about an 8/8 on your opponent's side when it's dead?

• Kolvori, God of Kinship  ^Flip: Man, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain sure got a lot of new goodies in this set! This card is unfortunately not great as a commander. If I'm playing mono-green legends, I'd rather play Reki, the History of Kamigawa.

• Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip: I love this card. There. I've said it. I'm done. This goes in so many different decks: Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Tinybones, Trinket Thief, Malfegor, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, the list goes on and on! As a commander, she's kill-on-sigh. A single Smallpox just wins you the game.

• Vega, the Watcher: I'll say it: This is probably the most powerful uncommon commander ever printed. This triggers off of so many things: Elsha of the Infinite, Flahsback, Cascade, Retrace, Future Sight, Suspend, Adventure, Foretell, Impulse Draw, etc. Need I say more?

• Jorn, God of Winter  ^Flip: ... Sigh. I know this is a fun card, but why is it sultai? Oh wait, it's generic value. EVen from a sultai-loving man as myself, this seems like overkill. Oh, you want me to talk about the commander? Stuff your deck full of snow lands. Attack. Repeat. Etc. So uninspiring.

Brobraam on What is the best card …

2 months ago

if you have a death- or etb trigger effect, i'd say Batterskull on its own. Pay 5 to play it, attach a germ to it. pay 3 to bounce it, death trigger. But only if you have anything to get value out of.

lorthosthetidebaker on Unban Dark Depths!

3 months ago

It seems to me that the consistency and options available to fair decks make them the best competition for a deck like Depths. It certainly isn't any faster than Neoform+Griselbrand and, from testing, would be on par with the faster storm/other combo draws. Depths may have slightly better odds than those decks but, notably, such fast combo decks have been pushed out of the greater modern meta.

In regard to the mana cost of Blood Moon, there is also Alpine Moon.

Perhaps the current pool of modern answers is lacking for responding to a 20/20 indestructible flyer but the issue of lacking modern answers is pervasive. I suppose Vapor Snag has over-performed through my history in modern but I don't discount the possibility that an answer exists in blue which I haven't considered. Having applications against Batterskull and older Primeval Titan builds does make it seem at least formerly functional.

Weird_Frisbee on Flip-Bolas Grixis Control

5 months ago

ammon502,

Opt is not the worst cantrip, prolly Brainstorm is unless I have that shuffle effect.

I was trying out Batterskull as a aggro option to stabilize boardstates and my life total. However i'm just going back to Baleful Strix.

Sublime Epiphany is too expensive to me, 6 mana is alot to hold up for just a single spell, albeit with multiple effects. Whereas my 3 six-mana+ spells are more highly impactful

zAzen7977 on Alchemy Balcony

5 months ago

Next I suggest swapping out expensive utility cards like Drift of Phantasms, Perplex, Muddle the Mixture, etc. for 1 drops to reduce your mana curve and allow turn 1 plays. Good candidates include Mishra's Bauble, Serum Visions, and Opt, which do not tutor for a card, but the additional card draw accomplishes the same objective without setting you back a whole turn.

You need to protect your combo proactively instead of reactively, so I suggest running Thoughtseize and/or Inquisition of Kozilek to remove threats before they are played. Force Spike and Spell Pierce are the best 1-drop counterspells, you may consider incorporating some into the main deck or sideboard. Removal like Fatal Push (in conjunction with fetchlands to trigger revolt) and Dismember are critical for dealing with creature-based decks and you should run at least 2 mainboard or on the side.

As far as the sideboard goes, great Karn targets are Wurmcoil Engine and/or Batterskull to gain life, which is critical against aggro and especially burn. Damping Sphere shuts down storm and ramp/Tron simultaneously. Ratchet Bomb wipes tokens or low cost permanents...

Feiryn on Ojutai Voltron

5 months ago

I spot someone looking to play my favourite dragon!

First off, what's your budget like? You're running cards such as Mana Drain so I'm going to assume a high budget at least for this comment.

Starting with your lands, you generally want to avoid cards that always enter tapped. This especially goes for a more aggressive list like this where you don't want to be waiting until the next turn for your mana. I recommend dropping all of the lands you have that enter tapped including Temple of the False God, and instead look at picking up others like Adarkar Wastes, Prairie Stream, Seachrome Coast, Nimbus Maze, Skycloud Expanse, Port Town, or even just replacing them with basic Islands/Plains. If you have a lot of money to burn there's always cards like Ancient Tomb, Cavern of Souls, and of course fetchlands.

I highly recommend picking up a Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull if you can afford them, they go extremely well together. Umezawa's Jitte is another really good piece of equipment but also is a bit more on the expensive side. I recommend cutting Whispersilk Cloak as Shroud makes you unable to equip Ojutai with anything, and Swiftfoot Boots is redundant due to Ojutai's natural hexproof. If you want another way to protect him, there's cheap options such as Sword of Vengeance which gives him a tonne of stuff.

For enchantments definitely look at Aqueous Form, cheap and fills the niche you were going for with Whispersilk Cloak. Battle Mastery and Daybreak Coronet are also fairly good Auras.

As for other cards there's Fabricate, Steelshaper's Gift, and Enlightened Tutor if you want to get pricy. I also recommend cutting Karn's Temporal Sundering, Time Warp, and Ojutai, Soul of Winter since they won't help you in your overall gameplan much.

Apologies for the wall of text, but I hope some of this helps!

Snake_Oil on Going about building a RE …

5 months ago

Black also has a lot of disease/plague effects, so along with Zombies you're solid.

Adding Blue opens you up to Laboratory style cards like Arcane Laboratory, Laboratory Maniac and Laboratory Brute.

Blue/Black gives you a few good commander options too, the best to my mind being Gisa and Geralf -- You can cast a zombie from the grave each of your turns and you could say they're like The Ashford Twins (minus the weirdness and plus the good-natured antagonism). Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is also a good card just in the deck, a big Tyrant style zombie albeit with a setback.

You could add mutate creatures in like Dirge Bat and Insatiable Hemophage but it's a really shallow pool and mechanic, you're better off focusing on zombie synergies.

But, for some real fun, look to equipment with Living Weapon like Batterskull, Lashwrithe, Scytheclaw and Skinwing -- Equipments that have that bioweapon vibe on top of creating germ tokens to act as your T/G Virus!

Hope this gives you some ideas!

multimedia on Elsha's Infinite Voltron

5 months ago

Hey, nice version of Elsha. I saw your forum topic asking for help with cuts.

Six cards to cut to make 100 cards:

• Remember the Fallen: lackluster recursion.
• Danitha Capashen, Paragon: doesn't reduce all artifact casting costs only equipment which makes her not as good as other cost reducers since she doesn't work with the Top combo.
• Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin: creature who's not good enough to disrupt Elsha.
• Ghostly Prison: I don't think you need both Prison and Propaganda, one could be cut.
• Blackblade Reforged: only good if you have a lot of lands, but you don't want a lot of lands with Elsha.
• Basilisk Collar: not a fan unless you're playing ways to take advantage of deathtouch and you can get lifelink from better equipment.

When you want more cuts look to reducing some redundancy:

• Puresteel Paladin is much better than Brass Squire.
• Padeem, Consul of Innovation is much better than Leonin Abunas.
• Sword of Vengeance is better with Elsha than Sigiled Sword of Valeron and Batterskull for vigilance since also gives trample. Valeron is a supbar equipment for the same costs as Vengeance and Batterskull not giving evasion is a big drawback.
• Hammer of Nazahn is better than Darksteel Plate.

All the Swords in the cycle can be good for different budgets, but when you have the three better expensive price ones then you don't need to play the others. Sword of Body and Mind, Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Truth and Justice are not as good as the others and could be cut.

---

Some cards to consider adding:

• Enlightened Tutor, Whir of Invention, Reshape, Fabricate: tutor for an equipment or Top.
• Foundry Inspector, Cloud Key: other artifact mana cost reducers for the combo with Top.
• Izzet Signet, Azorius Signet, Boros Signet: add the Signets in place of lands.
• Jeskai Ascendancy: is like giving Elsha pseudo vigilance with instant speed surprise untap/pump her to block and draw.

Good luck with your deck.