Bow of Nylea

Legendary Enchantment Artifact

Attacking creatures you control have deathtouch.

1G, T : Choose one -- Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature; or Bow of Nylea deals 2 damage to target creature with flying; or you gain 3 life; or put up to four target cards from your graveyard on the bottom of your library in any order.

Discussion (50)

lhetrick13 on I'll Raise you +1/+1...

3 weeks ago

Chasmolinker - I actually just played a game where someone dropped Lifecrafter's Bestiary. It did not help them ;) but I liked it but could not remember what it was called so thanks for the recommendation!

I do like Bow of Nylea but not for this deck. To get any a single +1/+1 counter from it, you have to pay 5 CMC. The deathtouch for attacking creatures is very nice but when are going nominally well, my creatures usually are the biggest on the field already so the deathtouch would be overkill.

The recommendations are always appreciated as usually I have not heard or thought of the cards you suggest so thanks again!

Chasmolinker on I'll Raise you +1/+1...

3 weeks ago

Bow of Nylea and/or Lifecrafter's Bestiary are nice budget options of this.

Drestlin on G/W +1/+1 counters exile

1 month ago

lhetrick13 Hei, thanks a lot.

Just to be clear, i haven't used Inspiring Call - but i don't usually have more than like 3 creatures on the board (if not less) so, as a drawing engine, it's not that great. On the other hand, it does provide with indestructible...

And yeah, i play paper, so everything is frigging stupidpriced :D

Regarding Bow of Nylea...you are right. It's nice, but it's not nice or impactful enough. Being legendary is also a downside, since it means 1 extra dead card. Avatar of the Resolute is basically the only card with reach - i don't know that it can be dropped that easily. i also really like it. I found that whenever it drops, it's usually already pretty big, at least a 5, more likely a 7-8 or more. Also agree on Willow Geist - 3 is enough, now that i have tried it around a bit. One Duskshell Crawler could also go, but wouldn't remove more.

6 down, another 4 to go...will think about it :D

Thanks a lot!

lhetrick13 on G/W +1/+1 counters exile

1 month ago

Drestlin - see comments below...

1. In terms of removal cards...I agree with you that Inscription of Abundance should go. I looked at it as well and although it does provide options, it is expensive to use it multiple abilities. Swallow Whole is not perfect but it does fit in a +1/+1 deck nicely with the caveat that you need a creature out and you need your opponent's creature to be tapped. You should play around with it and see what you think. I would avoid Gleeful Sabotage personally. I would not want to dedicate 2-4 slots for a card that can only kill artifacts/enchantments and be useless otherwise. Hopeful Initiate I feel like kinda fills this need for me. He is not perfect, but he does give some flexibility.

2. In terms of the draw potential...I just play MTGO and complain about the prices of some of those cards so I feel you if you are buying some of these in paper. I run two copies of Horizon Canopy and find I almost always end up using its draw ability so it is really nice for that. I am working on getting all four copies of Esper Sentinel still and he is only around 9$ per card in MTGO! Hmmm...so Inspiring Call has been sub-optimal in your experience huh? That is good to know. I will still experiment with it but good feedback still. I could definitely see how Hunter's Insight might provide a more consistent draw potential. Both of those two are situational but I will play with that too. Thanks for the suggestion!

3. ya...Savior of Ollenbock is a bit of a double-edged sword for offensive creature removal, especially if you are using him to exile cards from the opponent's graveyard! Extremely effective though if you can get him to train once or twice and exiling your own graveyard :) And I feel you with Basri's Lieutenant being slow. I originally ran four copies of him and recently dropped it to three but am considering dropping him down to only two copies. Useful card but not as useful as others...

4. If it were my deck and I was trying to find some room to fit in some of the stuff we talked about...I would drop 2xBow of Nylea. Your creatures should be bigger than most anything out there so you do not really need the deathtouch. It's activated ability is nice but I feel like for 3 CMC and an additional 2 CMC to activate an ability is pretty steep although the abilities are nice. Like you mentioned, you should most likely just run Gaea's Blessing or Elixir of Immortality for the mill deck. I would also drop Avatar of the Resolute as his ability is only mediocre I feel like even in this deck. You are only running 4 cards that allow you to remove cards from graveyard so I feel like Willow Geist could drop a copy. You could also likely drop a copy or two of Duskshell Crawler. Trample is nice but it is critical to the deck. Those are just some potential ideas for freeing up some space.

5. In regards to tokens...I am currently running Torens, Fist of the Angels and although he has won me games, I am actually thinking of dropping him. Perhaps he will be better once I am running 4xEsper Sentinel with the Horizon Canopy but right now, I only get one of two tokens out of him and that is it usually. If I could keep more cards in my hand, then he might be better to get out 3-4 tokens typically in a game and he would be worth the slots

Ziusdra on Touch of Death

2 months ago

With so many one- and two-drops, you're liable to run out of gas really quickly. Card draw is essential for such a low curve. I would highly recommend Return of the Wildspeaker and Toski, Bearer of Secrets since most of your creatures are non-human. Too, some green creatures (like Toski above) are too good to pass up, even if they don't have deathtouch. Beast Whisperer (especially since you have so many low mana creatures, you'll be doing so much drawing), Eternal Witness so you can repeat a powerful spell or recur a powerful permanent, Reclamation Sage, Scavenging Ooze to contain opponents' powerful effects and allow you to attack in. You need to be able to interact with opponents' boards and keep them from winning, too. Bow of Nylea can help you bring those creatures into synergy.

Omniscience_is_life on kookoo

2 months ago

I'd he happy to help! I'd recommend starting with around 10 cards that ramp your mana (Llanowar Elves, Rampant Growth, Arcane Signet, and more), 10 that draw you more cards (Armorcraft Judge, Bred for the Hunt, Benthic Biomancer, Fathom Mage, Inspiring Call, Towashi Guide-Bot, and stuff like that). After that, around 10 more cards should be dedicated to dealing with scary things your opponents play (like Beast Within, Ravenform, Resculpt, You Find a Cursed Idol, Oversimplify, plus others like those), 37ish lands (this one is a little more flexible, just see how many makes it so you're getting enough each game. You can also use the MDFC land/spells from Zendikar Rising, such as Glasspool Mimic  ^Flip, Tangled Florahedron  ^Flip, and Vastwood Fortification  ^Flip.

Once you have all that, the rest can really just be whatever you want. A bunch of cool creatures with strong activated abilities for your commander (I can give some suggestions if you want, but it sounds like you already have some ideas), some ways to untap those creatures with cards like Kiora's Follower, Kelpie Guide, and Clever Conjurer, and some ways to get counters on your creatures like Bow of Nylea, Burst of Strength, Ecologist's Terrarium, Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter, Hadana's Climb  ^Flip, and Ivy Lane Denizen.

Have fun, and let me know if there's anything else at all I can help with!

ShredderTTN86 on Isao MonoG Voltron

3 months ago

I'd recommend adding some equipment that will give your voltron more sustainability. Things like Basilisk Collar, Champion's Helm, Darksteel Plate, Commander's Plate, Whispersilk Cloak, and Chariot of Victory.

Quietus Spike, Bow of Nylea, Sword of the Animist, Trailblazer's Boots could be considered as well.

DreadKhan on sacrifice

4 months ago

Ohran Frostfang and Toski, Bearer of Secrets offer you some repeatable card draw for doing what you want to be doing. Frostfang's Deathtouch is really handy earlier game, draw is always handy. Midnight Reaper and Grim Haruspex are also good, but might be too many payoffs if you don't need the card draw. Blossoming Bogbeast and Thunderfoot Baloth are good ways to get Trample and a buff, handy especially if you've got deathtouch, 1 damage kills then. If you run enough Trample effects, you could also consider Saryth, the Viper's Fang or Bow of Nylea, as there are more good trample providers, some budget some not.

Over Diabolic Tutor, you could run cards like Jarad's Orders and Final Parting, or even Buried Alive to find Gravecrawler and a sac outlet, or Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and a 1 drop knight to generate a ton of death triggers, Universal Automaton is infinite mana with Ashnod's Altar I guess. Haakon always has to end up in the yard to work, but these are similar MV to Diabolic to maybe find a value engine. Gravecrawler loves Carrion Feeder or any other infinite sac outlet, but it also loves Pitiless Plunderer, at which point you can go infinite with this, making your army very tall. Haakon is more rugged than Gravecrawler, but is jankier. If you use Haakon, you can also try Liliana's Standard Bearer, both as a way to recover from a wipe and to draw cards via Haakon's recursion.

Over 'find a land when ___ dies', I would look at some options that let you sacrifice the creature for the land, such as Diligent Farmhand, which is always a source of a death trigger, even if you don't have an outlet out. Dawntreader Elk is also very good. Not saying Wood Elves are bad, but it's nice to have a death trigger attached. You might run more ramp period, any reason you don't run 1 drop mana like Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves, or even Elves of Deep Shadow to speed up your deck, getting to your Commander quicker is a big advantage in higher power games, especially with a powerful effect like your Commander.

Especially if you don't run more 1 or 2 MV permanents, you should look at Culling Ritual, that card is terrifying at higher power games, keep an eye out if people play a lot of 1 and 2 drops in your group to see if it will be relevant, but it can be very good.

Sarulf, Realm Eater is a crazy thing you could sneak in as a way to deal with an out of control opponent, your Commander can pump him with counters, and once he's big enough, he can clear the board completely (after you sacrifice stuff), so you can still use something like Living Death to put your dead creatures back into play, opponent's without a sac outlet have everything exiled. Sarulf will very quickly be big enough to clear the entire board, and he doesn't die when he does it, so it's back to your Commander and Sarulf vs the world, but if other players have used too many resources, they might not be prepared to come back. Maybe not a good choice if your area plays cards like Mindslaver a lot, but that's one of the biggest wipes around.

Props for using Mazirek!