Bayou

Land — Swamp Forest

({T}: Gain {B} or {G}.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Ardees on Gates? Nine Fingers Keene Competitive

1 month ago

If you are aiming at 'competitive' in the technical sense of the term (as in 'cEDH' or 'competitive EDH'), like the title seems to suggest, I see many staples missing that unfortunately make the deck quite far from being competitive.

Artifacts: you should be running at least Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mana Vault, Jeweled Lotus, maybe even Grim Monolith and Lion's Eye Diamond.,

Tutors: you are missing Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, and Worldly Tutor and Green Sun's Zenith if you run any combo, win, or strategy whatsoever based on creatures. You could also add Wishclaw Talisman and Solve the Equation, and, although not a tutor, Peer into the Abyss, which works quite nicely with Thought Vessel.

Lands: any competitive deck plays true duals, namely Underground Sea, Bayou, and Tropical Island. Same for shocklands and at least 6-7 fetchlands in a 3-color deck like this one. You could also consider lower the number of lands, depending on whether or not you want to keep the Gate strategy

Protection: any competitive deck that plays blue automatically plays top-end counterspells, namely Swan Song, Arcane Denial, Force of Will, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, Fierce Guardianship, Mental Misstep, An Offer You Can't Refuse, and Flusterstorm. You are also missing key cards like Cyclonic Rift or Chain of Vapor. Needless to say, ideally a competitive deck playing blue also plays Timetwister: not a counterspell but a must card (yeah, the price is another topic of conversation).

Creatures: I understand the Gate theme but you are missing some high-value creature cards in here, most notably Dauthi Voidwalker, Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip, Lotus Cobra, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Ramunap Excavator, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Oracle of Mul Daya, Elvish Reclaimer - to name a few. Much depends on the strategy of your deck, although don't let keywords aligned with your strategy (e.g. 'Gate') fool you into thinking some cards are good for that.

Enchantments: a few staples in the current competitive meta: Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Sylvan Library, Burgeoning, Exploration, maybe Abundance and Necropotence

Removals: you could most definitely swap some of your removals for something better and more competitive, such as Force of Vigor, Nature's Claim, Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy, and more.

Now, I totally understand there is a budget situation going on with upgrading to competitive MtG (spoiler alert: MtG is a pay-to-win type of game, research confirms), but generally the term 'competitive' sticks to decks that, to the very least, include most if not all cards mentioned above - without mentioning the fact that any competitive deck needs running at least one winning combo. At this stage, your level is more looking towards casual. This isn't to criticize you or anything of course, pretty interesting build, just not really a competitive deck in its strict sense.

If you want to try the competitive experience, my suggestion is to proxy cards by printing them online - this should cost around 10 bucks on colored and good quality paper, and effectively save you more than 7k worth of cards.

amarthaler on EDH Jorn, God of Winter

2 months ago

Update!

Out: 20 total cards! 1. Time of Ice, 2. Muldrotha, the Gravetide, 3. Iceberg Cancrix, 4. The Tarrasque, 5. Time of Ice, 6. Emergent Ultimatum, 7. Glittering Frost, 8. Boreal Outrider, 9. Faceless Haven, 10. Shimmerdrift Vale, 11. Avalanche Caller, 12. Frostwalk Bastion, 13. Coldsteel Heart, 14. Fabled Passage, 15. Opulent Palace, 16. Tropical Island, 17. Underground Sea, 18. Bayou, 19. Birds of Paradise, 20. Village Rites

In: 20 total cards! 1. Primal Rage, 2. Winged Boots, 3. Darksteel Plate, 4. Panglacial Wurm, 5. Sundial of the Infinite, 6. Diabolic Vision, 7. Inventors' Fair, 8. Thespian's Stage, 9. Boreal Centaur, 10. Hailstorm Valkyrie, 11. Druid Class, 12. Expedition Map, 13. Thing in the Ice  ^Flip, 14. Glorious Sunrise, and 2x Snow Forest, 3x Snow Island, 1x Snow Swamp

With this new design, we're looking to keep Jorn alive longer and deal more damage. There's also more ways to summon Marit Lage and pump up snow creatures. The mana base is smoothed out with more snow lands, and more card draw / ramp cards. Let me know what you think of the new brew!

jarncards on StickMan

3 months ago

I might run fewer/creatures, since stickfingers will until you reveal x creatures, not just x cards. The fewer you have the higher chance you hit one that destroys the table if you just overload on ramp and reanimates. Rather than these things Crawl from the Cellar,Ghoul's Feast,Gravepurge I'd focus on just reanimating and is easy to get and will probably serve you better. If you really do want it back in your hand Genesis Skullwinder and Eternal Witness do this while attached to a body.

Rather than sending to your hand these will just bring back Diregraf Rebirth, Victimize, Reanimate, Exhume, Unearth, Whisper, Blood Liturgist, Stitch Together,Dread Return.Geth, Lord of the Vault is expensive but can fill your yard as well as revive others. Finale of Devastation revives or tutors, and is a finisher.

Blossoming Wreath,Gnaw to the Bone probably heal less than lifelink, and there's a ton of ways to give lifelink.

Rampant Growth is slightly inferior to Three Visits and Nature's Lore as long as your dual lands have both typesOvergrown Tomb, Bayou, Woodland Chasm, although I'd definitely run all three if there's room. Culling Ritual would be an amazing ramp/wipe card you can use to nuke all tokens and then cast stickfingers. Sakura-Tribe Elder is just rampant growth that works as a blocker for one turn, and it is another creature in your graveyard. Lotus Cobra ramps too, particularly with your other ramp options.

And you'll likey have enough mana to use Decree of Pain, if not, other wipe options are Damnation,Pernicious Deed,Death Cloud,Deathbringer Regent,In Garruk's Wake,Killing Wave,Necromantic Selection,Plague Wind,Reiver Demon,Toxic Deluge. Torment of Hailfire works as a finisher too Endurance is basically the only way you can protect your graveyard that I can think of. I'd probably run Veil of Summer too.

Moodmark Painter gives the +x/+x buff and is on a body Garruk Relentless  ^Flip flips into Garruk, the Veil-Cursed, but its tricky to make this one work

Since you'll have access to really big creatures these can be nice for draw. Greater Good, Momentous Fall, Return of the Wildspeaker, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Morbid Curiosity, Life's Legacy, Disciple of Bolas, Doom Weaver, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.

Mesmeric Orb,Stitcher's Supplier would be an amazing graveyard filler.

Zombie Infestation and Wild Mongrel is usefull for dumping creatures out of your hand

I think every single black deck should run Dauthi Voidwalker, and the more grave hate you have the more you could take advantage of Living End/Living Death if you use these as mass reanimates. they are the cheapest.

Life from the Loam and Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip would be good helps for mana and options.

As long as you run Filth run Crop Rotation and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth too since it will make every creature you have unblockable.

Deathrite Shaman would benefit from more fetch lands Marsh Flats,Verdant Catacombs,Misty Rainforest would help mana fix as well as throw more lands into your graveyard.

You have a fairly high number of tutors, and a ton of ramp, so i'd consider Panglacial Wurm. It's a card you dont need to waste a draw to get and can be cast instant speed. And its fun to surprise people with it at least once.

DreadKhan on Meren Reanimator

4 months ago

I agree on Sakura Tribe Elder being good, but I think most of the others are not as good as you think, and in my experience few hands are better than when you have a 'Steve', a creature similar to Sakura Tribe Elder. I feel like there aren't many things non-competitive Meren can be doing early game that are better than using a Steve to ramp Meren out, at which point she can reanimate them. The creatures I mentioned are all different in that they each will kill itself, which allows Meren to gain XP and have something worth recurring early game so her ability isn't 'dead'.

Fwiw, here are my takes on those cards, hopefully my suggestion will make more sense. Yavimaya Elder isn't even ramp, it's a cantriping creature that finds you two lands for 5 mana, which is usually much worse than Burnished Hart, which costs 1 more mana to actually ramp you two lands, and Hart requires no Green mana. I think you have enough lands that Elder is not especially good either way. Viridian Emissary suffers from not having a way to die sometimes, at which point you have a bear that nobody will block (and nobody will bother swinging at you for a few turns), I'd gladly take damage to not give you life, and many of my decks run evasive creatures or don't care about attacking, so it's possible it wouldn't even hinder some decks to not bother killing your Emissary, at which point you're dependent on another card to kill it, and this is a dork that only ramps on death, in addition to you not being able to recur it if it didn't die yet. Satyr Wayfinder is a weird card, but it's also not guaranteed, you'll whiff about 16% of the time as far as I can see, the exact chances vary considerably obviously, but it's not guaranteed and it can't kill itself, so you can't reanimate it to repeat it. Farhaven Elf is a good card, if you aren't running any non-Basic Forest cards (IE Overgrown Tomb or Bayou) then you don't need Wood Elves, Farhaven is just better, but on the downside, Farhaven might not die and thus won't generate XP or be recurred unless you have a sac outlet out, which can be hard to do early game when a Steve could be ramping you over and over.

I feel like non-cEDH Meren is potentially one of the rampiest decks you can build, but it will limit what you're recurring most games to ramp for the first few turns, but who wouldn't run a Commander that lets them ramp every turn, potentially for little or no mana?

CommanderNeyo on Gitrog Combo

4 months ago

I love the The Gitrog Monster, and he was the first commander that I built and owned.

Some recommendations I have for you are:

If you are wholly committed to the combo, Squandered Resources will become one of the best cards in your deck. It lets you generate significant amounts of mana and card draw to find Skirge Familiar and Dakmor Salvage.

Although not as good, I also enjoyed having Zuran Orb in my commander deck to draw boat-loads of cards.

Splendid Reclamation is great, allowing you to grab several of the lands that inevitably land in the graveyard. I would consider it necessary if you run Squandered Resources.

Underrealm Lich can let you dig deep into your deck when The Gitrog Monster is out.

I would recommend running a lot more fetchlands as well, since they work to help you draw cards. Anything that can grab a forest or swamp, so that you can grab Bayou or Overgrown Tomb

Nurturing Peatland was almost made for the frog, since it draws two cards when he is out. I also personally like Cryptic Caves.

If you add these lands, then I would also recommend adding Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator, since they will help you replay them to draw more cards.

Lycheex on The Spanish Inquisition

5 months ago

@ArtPunch: Thanks! Glad to see someone with lot's of experience comment on the sideboard. Are there any cards you would recommend for going broad? I thought that a cheeky Dark Ritual into Rotting Regisaur might catch opponent's off guard, but that isn't exactly going wide... Perhaps Bitterblossom?

I don't, however, see what the value of Aeve, Progenitor Ooze would be in the sideboard? I might be overlooking something, but except for Flusterstorm I believe that most storm-hate cards would also stop Tendrils of Agony or Goblin Charbelcher. I agree that Aeve is a big nonbo with Summoner's Pact, but you never want to pact for it. I also agree that you want to maximise your T1 win rate. But for just 1 slot, Aeve basically guarantees a T2 win on a low storm count.

Consider a mulligan to 5 and you get the following hand: Dark Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Cabal Ritual, Bayou and Lion's Eye Diamond. This is a good hand. The play would be:

• Play Bayou
• Cast LED (storm 1)
• Cast Dark Ritual (BBB) (storm 2)
• Cast Cabal Ritual (BBBB) (storm 3)
• Cast Infernal Tutor holding priority and sacrificing the LED for green (BBGGG) (storm 4)
• Get and cast Aeve with the Infernal Tutor for storm 5

The line above is a win on T2, short of an Entreat the Angels of the top of the deck, or an opponent that turbo's out Ensnaring Bridge on T1/2. It's (nearly always) a T2 win. I find this preferable to grabbing a Draw 4 spell, hoping to continue building the storm count. You might get there, but might also not. In this regard, I view Aeve to be similar to Wild Cantor. You don't often cast the cards, but they're in the deck for the few times you need them.

Having said all this, I don't use Aeve that often to win (I usually have a high enough storm count for Tendrills). So, you could argue Aeve doesn't merit it's spot based on the frequency you cast it. Despite this, I still want to have an Aeve in my mainboard.

jbgrv on Triome Evolving Wilds

9 months ago

Is it then possible to fetch OG duals (Tundra, Bayou, Plateau, etc.) with Evolving Wilds, Prismatic Vista, or Fabled Passage, or also not? How can land have the basic type written on itself, but still not count as a basic land (triomes or shocklands...)?

This is very counterintuitive. I thought all lands that HAVE any of the basic land types written on them (Shocklands, Amonkhet cycle lands, Mystic Sanctuary..) are fetchable with anything that can search for basic land. But you say they are only fetchable with cards like Farseek or original fetch lands, but not with Evolving Wilds, Prismatic Vista, or Fabled Passage? If you are correct then it is really strange and against logic.

DemonDragonJ on How Good are the New …

10 months ago

The new Innistrad block provided a new cycle of dual lands (Deathcap Glade, Deserted Beach, and so forth), which I appreciate, and I especially like how WotC printed a full cycle of ten dual lands, rather than half a cycle of five dual lands, as they too often do.

Naturally, I am wondering how those dual lands compare to other cycle of dual lands, so I wish to ask others about their opinions of those lands.

The best dual lands of all are obviously the original dual lands (Bayou, Tundra, Plateau, and so forth), but those are too expensive for all but the most hardcore of players, so I shall not mention them any further in this thread.

After the originals, the second-best dual lands are the shock lands (Hallowed Fountain, Sacred Foundry, Godless Shrine, and so forth), which are nearly as good as the originals, with only a very minor downside.

After that, however, it is difficult to say what the next-best cycle is; I say that the "battle lands" (Cinder Glade, Canopy Vista, and so forth), the "check lands" (Glacial Fortress, Sunpetal Grove, Isolated Chapel, and so forth), and the filter lands (Cascade Bluffs, Wooded Bastion, Sunken Ruins, and so forth) are all contenders for the title of third-best dual lands, so I am not certain where the new Innistrad lands rank in comparison to them.

What does everyone else say about this? How good are the new Innistrad dual lands?