Bone Shards

Sorcery

As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature or discard a card.

Destroy target creature or planeswalker.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (43)

Unlife on Converting from Modern to Pioneer

1 day ago

I've been playing round with this modern deck for a while now:

Rakdos Return

I made the decision to attempt a conversion over to pioneer. The core of the deck, and the manabase is basically the same, but I'm looking for advice on where to go with some of the support cards. For example, I can turn Bone Shards into Lightning Axe, but I haven't found a good replacement for damantion yet. I'm also running Talisman of Indulgence and Mind Stone for ramp, but there doesn't seem to be any two mana rocks that would slot into their place. Would it be better to just increase removal, or try some three mana rocks instead?

Thanks in advance.

TheVectornaut on Mono-Black Budget

1 month ago

Based on the profile name, description, and seeming inaccuracy of the price stated, I'm guessing this is an AI-based account. Still, I do like budget black decks like this. On the off chance that a human reads this, I'll offer some advice from my experience. First, there's no real reason to be running Gravecrawler here with no other zombies. Something like Dread Wanderer, Bloodsoaked Champion, or Cult Conscript could serve a similar role for much cheaper. On the draw side, Necropotence could be Phyrexian Arena or Midnight Oil, but I really like Blood Scrivener and Asylum Visitor for refilling from empty. For removal, cards like Sinister Concoction and Bone Shards can take advantage of creatures that return from the grave while Bone Picker offers an evasive threat and answer for cheap. For finishers, I like Mogis's Marauder or Foul-Tongue Shriek for a lot of matchups and Gray Merchant of Asphodel for others.

Flavuss on Minotaurs gang

1 month ago

aholder7 thank you so much for your detailed comment , i appreciate it and I completely see what you're tying to suggest. I'll definitely try it the way you posted above. Btw My initial idea was to have low cost disruption spell to mess with the opponent and to have cards like Bloodrage Brawler and Bone Shards to enable early turns Unearth to cheat from graveyard minotaurs and to have as fast as possible the requisite for Neheb, the Worthy ability. and yes Kragma Warcaller felt very slow for this idea. Do you think that this way the deck can somehow works? Thank you for your time :)

aholder7 on Minotaurs gang

1 month ago

I'm a big fan of minotaurs as well. The main thing you will need to contend with for minotaurs is that despite being red/black it's not very fast without something like Aether Vial to drop additional threats. And if it's trying to go fast cards like Kragma Warcaller are going to come down way too late. The second big problem you will be fighting is card advantage. I know that you are trying to get the 1 card or less ability on Neheb, the Worthy but every card is a resource and you are throwing yours away with cards like Bone Shards and Bloodrage Brawler. You'll get down to 1 card in hand pretty easily if your curve is lower. Third problem. All of the good creatures are at 3 mana. you have Neheb, the Worthy, Rageblood Shaman, Glint-Horn Buccaneer, Felhide Petrifier, and Ragemonger.

So is all lost for the horned and hooved? I think we can make it work (though if you just like tribal and don't care which tribe, vampires might be a better BR tribe for you). It might shift how the deck feels a bit. Even looking at other minotaurs not in your list there just aren't enough good ones at low CMCs to make this an aggro deck. Territorial Kavu is going to be a 2 mana 5/5 with no downsides for decks that want it. a Bloodrage Brawler just won't compete on speed and power. So i suggest embracing the slowness and trying to fight as a midrange deck where we want the game to go a bit longer.

I think you can utilize cards like Sardian Cliffstomper and Glint-Horn Buccaneer that work well in a grindier game. You could also use a couple discard spells like Inquisition of Kozilek to help fill out the low end of your curve. Neheb, the Worthy also pairs nicely with Felhide Petrifier.

lastly Rakdos Charm is an amazing spell, but it should probably be in your sideboard, not your mainboard.

could end up something like this

-3 Bone Shards -4 Rakdos Charm -4 Bloodrage Brawler -1 Neheb, the Worthy -3 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion

+4 Inquisition of Kozilek +2 Duress (or whatever other discard spell you like) +4 Sardian Cliffstomper +2 Felhide Petrifier +3 Glint-Horn Buccaneer

zapyourtumor on Jund Twist - Modern

1 month ago

Yeah so the best discard outlet, Faithless Looting, was banned a while ago (victim of HOEgaak that disgusting deck).

The best 2 mana discard outlet in red being played in most reanimation decks is Bitter Reunion currently, because after Persisting an Archon of Cruelty you can give it haste and attack for another trigger which is backbreaking. Here, the second ability is probably less relevant since Goryo's gives haste, but I still think it's better than the other options. The main issue with Faithless Salvaging is that its both slow and you're also going down on card advantage, UNLESS: you play it with cards in your hand, and then cast all cards in your hand, so you only draw a card on rebound (breaking even). Or you cast it with no cards in your hand, drawing two cards over two turns (generating card advantage).

Unfortunately many of the other good discard outlets are in blue, examples being: Prismari Command, Faithful Mending, Tainted Indulgence, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip, Ledger Shredder, etc.

As I said the kind of discard outlet you run generally depends on what you want the deck to do: I'd say they are all tradeoffs between speed and power. On the fastest side we have Haggle, which can be used for turn 2 hasty Boar + Emmy although it requires 4 cards in hand. Somewhere in between but still towards the faster side we have all of the 2 mana discard spells in red. And then further toward the power side we have cards like Collective Brutality. And further still we have all the generally good cards like Fable, Spyro, etc. So basically you need to decide what balance between speed and grinding power you want the deck to have. To try and make it easier I rated all of the options in jund colors I think are worth considering along three criteria: speed, power, and flexibility. Given that this deck is a grindy midrange deck at heart (or at least I think that is what you are aiming for), speed can be useful but power and flexibility are more important in my opinion.

Speed 9 Power 1 Flex 1: Merchant of the Vale (1 mana discard spell, fast but that's all there is)

9, 2, 4: Bone Shards (also fast, but generally more relevant mid/late)

7, 5, 1: Cathartic Reunion (powerful but inflexible, seen in dredge)

7, 2, 4: Cathartic Pyre (flexible but weak)

7, 3, 2: Thrill of Possibility (less all in version of Cathartic Reunion)

7, 3, 4: Bitter Reunion (more flexible vers. of Thrill)

7, 5, 8: Collective Brutality (most flexible 2 cmc discard outlet in BRG)

6, 3, 4: Faithless Salvaging (slow, weak, only generates CA in late game)

5, 6, 5: Territorial Kavu (even slower because requires attack trigger)

4, 7, 7: Seasoned Pyromancer (both powerful and flexible, can generate bodies or CA)

3, 7, 8: Liliana of the Veil (powerful and flexible, threat + removal + discard)

2, 8, 8: Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip (slowest 3 cmc option, tons of grind power + flexibility)

Additional notes:

• Bone Shards can be used to sacrifice an Ilharg or Emrakul, and if you sacrifice Ilharg it won't get exiled in order to reanimate it again next turn.

• Bone Shards, Cathartic Reunion, Thrill of Possibility, and Collective Brutality have the discard as part of the casting cost, so you discard the card(s) even if the spell is countered. Merchant of the Vale, Bitter Reunion, etc do not.

• Collective Brutality is maindeckable but the versatility makes it stronger in the sideboard.

• Territorial Kavu requires at least 4 basic land types to be effective.

• Repeatable/delayed discard effects, such as Liliana of the Veil and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip allow you to discard Emrakul the turn after you cast them and instantly reanimate them, spreading out your mana over two turns.

aholder7 on Assailing Archeology

4 months ago

Methodology: You were on the play in every game. Sideboarding was not included in any game as it usually would help your opponent more than you (and i was lazy).

Murktide: 0-7 Despite Murktide having the disadvantage of multiple dead cards in their deck against you, these games weren't even remotely close. You almost never got to resolve and keep anything of note. Your method of dealing with small threats was to 2-for-1 yourself with shards. Your early game was entirely non existent meaning they usually got 4 turns to try and kill you before you even started playing.

Crashing Footfalls: 2-5 Your first win was because i forced them to keep a once land hand to see what it would take for you to win. even with them missing land drops on turn 2 and 3 and your your turn 4 mishra they actually almost beat you. the second win was because by turn 12 they had managed to not draw a single cascade card, and despite that had you on the ropes most of the game.

Rakdos AggroL 1-6 Your win was when the opponent decided to take the damage option on combustion because they were at 18. turns out flipping a combined 21 works just as well here as it does in black jack. to be fair you actually had a decent board state that game. not certain if you would have won, but it was the only game you weren't out right destroyed in.

Overall: Your inability to fight in the early game is debilitating. You don't necessarily need to drop super big threats, but at least have a plan to prevent your opponent from killing you by turn 4. those Lightning Bolts in the sideboard would be a good start. Also now that i have read jaxis, they are not a good card for you. they are a win more card of sorts. they only do something useful if you don't really need them. Bone Shards's costs are actually a bit steep. Terminate is a really solid removal spell. Fatal Push is great if you want to keep to 1 mana. Dreadbore would be good to keep the planeswalker removal option of shards but i believe you are trying to keep the deck budget. you could get proactive and use cards like Inquisition of Kozilek to remove threats before they can actually bother you. Void Maw much like jaxis is a card that only even works in theory if you are already in a position where you should win. i don't know what creatures you'd want on the lower end. maybe something like Sin Prodder would be your type of fun but probably not the best card. something that produces tokens to block with would be nice but i'm not really sure what the options are for that as thats not really what RB is about.

keizerbuns on Assailing Archeology

4 months ago

Wow, it did a lot better than I would’ve imagined! Thanks for testing it out for me aholder7.

I definitely agree that Braids would be better off as another copy of Gearhulk, but just for my playgroup I think I'm going to leave her in as well as the 2 Void Maws. If I do feel like getting more serious with the deck though, I have another Gearhulk and 2 Rust Goliaths in the sideboard that I'd swap braids and maw out for, and 4 Lightning Bolts to replace the Bone Shards with. I did also take your advice on favoring Thrill so I made thrill a 4 of and then took out 1 reunion and 1 tutor.

Thanks for all your help, I feel like this deck has come a long way thanks to your advice!

keizerbuns on Assailing Archeology

4 months ago

Thank you so much for the feedback aholder7!

You bring up a lot of really good points here. I suppose I could just get the same result of mana ramping if I just used Rakdos colored stones. I was using green because originally I had 4 copies of Ravenous Squirrel for saccing my creatures so I did need the green to activate its ability, but since I've decided to drop the squirrels I guess there isn't much need for green beyond needing it for tutors and for the occasional time I use Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip. Speaking of the tutors, I do think having at least a couple is really necessary for finding Void Maw, which I feel is a really important combo piece in this deck. I've also found that it's surprisingly easy to get the delirium effect of Traverse the Ulvenwald off even with only 3 fetch lands, but if I really want to keep the tutors I guess I could just add a couple more Profane Tutors, or maybe even the new Diabolic Intent.

I've also been noticing too that Bone Shards isn't really enough early game interaction, so maybe adding a few more 1 drop removal or burn spells might help the early game consistency. Jaxis, the Troublemaker has been an absolute superstar in this deck so adding at least 1 more couldn't hurt anything.

As with Chainer, Nightmare Adept, I don't think it hurts to have just a 1 off of him since he doubles as a way to recast my important non-artifact creature combo pieces should they ever get removed or dumped into the graveyard from my library, on top of him just being a great source of free discarding. I actually feel like I would need him more if I were to remove green from the deck since I wouldn't have access to Bala Ged Sanctuary  ^Flip anymore.

Last, I don't know if I would add the fenlurker, the rat, or the zealot just cause I feel like they would be taking up space for more useful cards. I also don't actually like the idea of using Sundering Titan in this deck since it can very easily backfire and force me to blow up my own lands if my opponents don't have any black or red basics.

I really like all of your suggestions and your reasoning for dropping green is pretty sound. I do like how the deck feels right now, but I'm going to make a new version of this deck with the changes you suggested and see how much more I like it. Chances are you're right about the changes that I need to make here and I'll probably end up overhauling this version to match the version you suggested.

Thanks again for your comment, it's much appreciated!!