Battle Mastery

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

Enchanted creature has double strike. (It deals both first-strike and regular combat damage.)

Discussion (49)

lil_cheez on All your aura are belong to Bruna!!

3 days ago

There is a "Holy Trinity" of auras when Bruna is your commander, and they are:

• Corrupted Conscience
• Eldrazi Conscription
• Battle Mastery

If you have any two of the trinity, Bruna is dealing lethal damage.

Also I'd highly recommend adding some counterspells and other instant protection like Mizzium Skin because Bruna will be targeted a lot!!

And if you'd like to be a little goofy. Traumatize and Mirror-Mad Phantasm will put a LOT of auras in your graveyard to Bruna just grab them all

Casey4321 on Sigarda's Enchanted Evening

3 weeks ago

Argothian Enchantress is pretty expensive. But it is useful also Divine Reckoning targeting Sigarda. Also Face of Divinity Single Combat Shield of the Oversoul Eidolon of Blossoms Battle Mastery Sphere of Safety Nylea's Colossus Silverblade Paladin Shielded by Faith Indestructibility Duelist's Heritage

Tzefick on New Alara

2 months ago

Again I have to emphasize that without something tangible to compare to, I don't know what makes your Soulbond idea work better than the idea of Caretaker. Please provide some tangible ideas of how you would make this mechanic and put it on some creatures.

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"First-off, it’s too similar to old Naya."

• Well... you do actually want to make it feel like it came from Naya, don't you?

"But more importantly, it doubles down on what made Naya the least popular shard- that is, that “power 5 or greater” is really tough to secure because most creatures in that range cost four or more mana, which basically disqualifies it from most competitive environments. It’s just too slow to be functional."

• Are you seriously saying that 4+ CMC is non competitive? In what format? Modern, Vintage and Legacy? Sure in most settings hard casting a 4 CMC dumb Beast is likely not something you want to do in those formats, but are we really designing cards for the sole purpose that they should appear in competitive eternal formats? In Standard? No way is that too slow.

I strolled through War of the Spark standard decks on MTGtop8.com. We have a group of Esper Midrange who utilizes fringe amount of Hostage Taker , a bit more uses Elite Guardmage and all uses Teferi, Hero of Dominaria . That's a midrange deck with no efficient ramp access.

We have Gruul Aggro, featuring cards like Nullhide Ferox , Rekindling Phoenix and Skarrgan Hellkite . They also have a selection of ramp creatures.

Even Red Deck Wins have 4 CMC cards, although for a slightly different reason, Chandra, Fire Artisan and Experimental Frenzy .

And these are just the most present aggro decks and only one of whom utilizes mana ramp. If I go to UR aggro (next in line) they have Arclight Phoenix (although they may not actually cast it) and Crackling Drake

So I think it's wrong to say that 4 CMC cards are non-competitive.

It's also quite possible to make cards with the Caretaker idea that is definitely going to see play in eternal formats. It's just a matter of pushing the cards far enough.

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Additionally the border for Naya's threshold doesn't necessarily need to be at 5. It could be at 4 instead to push the mechanic as a baseline a bit more.

But as you said yourself; "Not only that, but both the power # and whether it’s “greater than X” or “less than X” makes it very broad design space, and gives me a lot of good knobs to work with. It’s also the furthest thing I can think of from a parasitic mechanic (which one could argue old Naya’s “power 5 or greater was, given nearly all of the decent power 5+ creatures below 4-5 mana were from Naya at the time, and kinda still today- most are either flip cards or have a serious downside)."

The Power X or greater/lesser than X does grant a certain amount of design space.

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I also fail to see how a shifted Soulbond that forces a particular pairing (you said yourself you wanted it to be restrictive pairing) is a better transcending mechanic outside block than a mechanic that have you play lower CMC creatures that can bounce themselves to gain a powerful effect when you play a higher CMC creature.

Thematically, Caretaker plays into the same space as Exploit, except it's the other way around where you first play the mechanic and THEN the enabler, and you only lose tempo and not resources like you do with Exploit - which was a liked mechanic on the Storm Scale.

Based on MTGTop8.com's historic data, the only Soulbond cards who ever made it to competitive eternal formats (here Modern, Legacy, Vintage) are: Deadeye Navigator and Silverblade Paladin . Deadeye is used in 1 Legacy deck back in 2013, and ended up in rank 5-8 out of 8. Silverblade has occurred a few more time, 4 in Modern (3 of whom back in 2012 - 1 year after Modern launch) and 4 in Legacy (mostly in Death & Taxes decks).

Now these data are all taken from one source, granted, but Soulbond as a mechanic doesn't seem like it has shown much competitive potential or at least result. One of the present cards is a combo component. The other is a Double Strike enabler on a body. Double Strike is an incredibly powerful keyword, especially when you can grant it to any creature. The best alternative is Battle Mastery for a permanent Double Strike ability.

I don't think I'm stretching the truth when I say that Deadeye Navigator and especially Silverblade Paladin were both pushed cards.

Actually looking at it, Spellbreaker Behemoth has 5 entries in Modern but it dies there for him. Woolly Thoctar had 4 in Modern and 2 in Standard. So either the data is just not there for Alara Standard or they made more splashes in Modern than in Standard. Ah and Woolly made 41 entries in Extended (yeah, it was back in those days). I think Naya was kinda overshadowed by the Naya zoo archetype featuring Wild Nacatl .

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As for Soulbond's entrance on the Storm scale, MaRo states that the mechanic is very popular but the design space is medium. The template for Soulbond is mostly in P/T upgrades, Evergreen Keywords and occassionally other abilities. Another hindrance is that both paired creatures gets the same effect.

They also say their data may be skewed toward more enfranchised players who are more likely to be competitive. In Standard Soulbond was used quite a lot, especially Wolfir Silverheart , beating Silverblade Paladin but sharing a lot of decks too under Aggro. However Wolfir shows up nowhere in competitive eternal formats.

They haven't made a Storm Scale article about Shards of Alara (or they have hidden it beyond the reach of Google) so where do you get your data on Naya's Power 5 being unpopular with the players? I'm genuinely curious.

The Storm Scale is also a strange way to measure popularity TBH. It kinda pitches the block's mechanics against each other, so if there's a mechanic that overshadows the rest, then you may get a skewed picture compared to considering the mechanics individually. Food for thought I guess.

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In conclusion, I don't think a restrictive Soulbond is that much better of a mechanic than what you could do with Caretaker and "Gargantuan". I do however think there's a flavor break on using Soulbond - I don't see the soulbonding between a massive beast and their worshippers. Unless the beasts somehow got way more sentient and actually starts having empathy for their worshippers.

I think you yourself have a dislike of the Naya Power-5 mechanic, so a mechanic that goes somewhat close to what it was is something you dislike. Unless you provide some sauce on the unpopularity of Naya's Power-5, I don't think it's right to say it is disliked as a mechanic. It may not have been a competitively pushed mechanic, but that doesn't mean the mechanic is disliked.

ewok2000 on Everyone Hates This Deck

5 months ago

Love the deck. However there is one small thing, I, for one, disagree with the inclusion of Battle Mastery . I don't want to sound petty but I don't see anything staying in play long so it will just fizzle when the enchanted creature flickers, right?

RoaringBunny on Mr. Steal Yo Topdeck

6 months ago

I don't know what kind of group you play with so I'm going to make a bunch of general sugestions.

• First off, you might benefit from some instant speed removal. Path to Exile Swords to Plowshares etc.
• Similar to above counterspells will help protect you enchanted creature and stop problems from hitting the board.
• If you do not like counterspells perhaps Brave the Elements effects or things like Valorous Stance or Sheltering Light etc.
• Board wipes are also useful in stopping decks that go wide from getting out of hand.
• If you want to keep your removal enchantment based Prison Term is good and you go further into Pacifism efects and/or Oblivion Ring effects.
• Idyllic Tutor and Plea for Guidance are a couple tutors to consider.
• Sram, Senior Edificer is another enchantress effect for auras.
• Some artifact ramp to speed your deck up could be good. Primarily 2 cmc rocks to play before your general. ex. Sol Ring Azorius Signet Talisman of Progress Fellwar Stone
• If you don't like the mana rock idea perhaps you could hate on other peoples. ex. Stony Silence Kataki, War's Wage Aura of Silence
• Sun Titan , Restoration Specialist , and Retether provide some more recursion.
• Sigarda's Aid is a staple in aura/equipment based decks.
• You seem to have most of the auras I like in the deck already but a few to consider are Flickering Ward , Gryff's Boon , Shielded by Faith , and Battle Mastery
• It might be worth branching into equipment for utility, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots add some much needed haste.
• Last but not least Bastion Protector is good at both protecting your general and upping his power.

Hopefully some of this is helpful.

griffstick on Isperia, Master Creeper

6 months ago

Tutoring twice sounds like its worth a slot. plus If for some reason you don't know what's in someone's hand double strike helps there. Ps I love that you are using Glasses of Urza . Maybe add Enlightened Tutor and/or Steelshaper's Gift to tutor up that stuff. There's also Battle Mastery for another double strike

hkhssweiss on Uril ramp/control

8 months ago

sriah001

There are actually a couple cards I would replace and swap in. However I am unsure of what exact route you want to take, I see some equipments along with Uril those would be the first thing I would cut as they don't really provide the necessary advantage in what Uril would do. Your goal is to Blackjack each player and those don't help.

The only artifacts I would consider running would be utility and efficient mana rocks. Unless you run in a meta with a lot of artifact hate or mass artifact hate, than I would consider running more land ramp. Since Uril is at the 5 cmc curve you are limited in what you can do if you want to get him out by T3, the first thing is building CA and by doing that I would recommend running at least 6-7 Enchantresses, luckily they aren't too expensive anymore with all the reprints.

I play an Bant Enchantress style deck as well and currently it has a record of being too powerful, for Naya you have access to haste as well as Uril being hexproof and self buffing ability. Any combination of double strike and +6/+6 on Uril makes him one shot potential. So with that being said here would be some cuts I would recommend.

Cuts:

• Awakening Zone
• Pariah
• Pattern of Rebirth
• Prison Term
• Soul Snare
• Deadly Recluse
• Elvish Archdruid
• Yavimaya Elder
• Mind's Eye
• Darksteel Ingot
• Mirari
• Skullclamp
• Sword of Body and Mind
• Sword of Feast and Famine
• Sylvan Scrying
• Soul's Majesty
• Praetor's Counsel
• Journey of Discovery
• Final Judgment
• Evangelize
• Constant Mists
• Ghostway
• Moment's Peace

The ones I mentioned above either doesn't have much synergy with the deck, is too slow, or there is a better alternative that you can swap it out for. In addition I am also a bit wary of running Mana Reflection as well as Academy Rector in this deck. There are no guaranteed way of killing Academy Rector as an off switch and even then your just getting an enchantment that doesn't guarantee you a win, so I would also consider cutting Rector. Mana Reflection is great, but most time your tapping out to get it online, I'm not too sure how the skill level is in your meta but this usually gets pop right away and you waste one whole turn, so it's up to you to keep or not.

Here are some additional cards that can be useful, I'm not too sure of your budget but I'll list some of them and you can let me know if you want to know the reason behind each card :P

• Aura of Silence
• Ancestral Mask
• Battle Mastery
• Faith's Reward
• Replenish
• Exploration
• Sterling Grove
• Open the Armory
• Song of the Dryads
• Lignify
• Darksteel Mutation
• Winds of Rath
• Kor Spiritdancer
• Sram, Senior Edificer
• Satyr Enchanter
• Eidolon of Blossoms
• Boros Charm
• Swords to Plowshares
• Nature's Claim
• Krosan Grip
• Teferi's Protection

Yeah there are plenty of cards to consider, but let me know if you have any questions!

oliveoilonyaasscureshemorrhoid on Tiana; Like an Enchantress but... Not

10 months ago

I would fix your mana base first. Average EDH decks have 45 mana sources, and Tiana definitely needs it, so consider more lands or rocks like Gilded Lotus/Boros Cluestone/Commander's Sphere/Fire Diamond/Marble Diamond etc etc. Fiery Mantle/Dragon Breath could replace Mark of Fury/Goblin War Paint? Guise of Fire/Bonds of Faith/Prophetic Ravings could replace Bloodshed Fever/Hammerhand/Cartouche of Zeal? Graceblade Artisan is a great duplicate of Champion of the Flame, it could replace Favored Hoplite/Call To Serve. If you want more combat map control you could run Goblin Spymaster/Overwhelming Splendor. Immolation/Inferno Fist are good duplicates of Ordeal of Purphoros.

Other than these replacements, I think you made a fine deck. I would include more finishers like Shiv's Embrace/Splinter Twin/Elemental Mastery/Burning Anger/Battle Mastery, or include a combo with Battered Golem/Paradox Engine/Endbringer/Traxos, Scourge of Kroog. I think some weaker finishers in this deck right now are Giant Spectacle/Lightning Reflexes/Madcap Skills/Lightning Talons. And I think Gift of Immortality is alright, but it doesn't protect your auras in extension if a creature-only board wipe happens, so another indestructible spells would be better.

I like the neat combo of Pariah and Tiana, and your enchantment based draw engines + Auratog/Faith Healer is another neat combo. Curse of Opulence is a great include, it's a one drop that adds influences damage away from you and toward your 120 combined life goal. Umbra Mystic/Anax and Cymede/Heavenly Blademaster are also great includes!