Caged Sun

Combos Browse all Suggest

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
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Caged Sun

Artifact

As Caged Sun enters the battlefield, choose a colour.

Creatures you control of the chosen colour have +1/+1.

Whenever a land's ability gains you one or more mana of the chosen colour, gain one additional mana of that colour.

AWebb on Om Nom Trample

1 month ago

I'm wondering why you don't have cards like Gauntlet of Power or Caged Sun in your deck.

multimedia on Gisa, Zom Zom Queen *Work In Progress*

2 months ago

Hey, well done so far, but I think you overestimate needing so many buffs (anthems).

All the artifacts for anthem effects is overkill, you have tutors that can get the better anthem. Adding more repeatable draw sources can do more for gameplay than anthems because more reliable draw helps to draw the better anthems. Coat of Arms, Eldrazi Monument and The Immortal Sun are much better than the other artifact anthems here.

In my opinion anthem effects to be worth playing need to also have card quality for the mana cost. Instruments of War and Hall of Triumph are bad cards, only providing a small anthem effect nothing else for their mana cost isn't good enough to take deck spots. Obelisk of Urd is subpar, but at least it can be mana cost reduced even to 0 with Zombies. Bad Moon is only 2 mana, but there's greater two drops that have much better card quality. Heraldic Banner can be a mana rock, but even so you can do better for a three drop.

Adaptive Automaton is a creature who Gisa can sac and who can be a Zombie lord (anthem), but it's a bad card compared to all other Zombie lords who provide another good repeatable effect. Icon of Ancestry and Vanquisher's Banner aren't worth it since there's too many nonZombie creatures here. You can get more reliable repeatable draw from other sources.

You have Crypt Ghast, Cabal Coffers and tutors to get them, you don't need Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power mana effects. These cards are better in mono white, red or blue because these colors can really use the mana ramp. Liliana's Mastery is a very low budget five drop for Zombies, not needed here.


There's several cards in the maybeboard to consider adding main deck if you have them. Areas to focus on improving with cards from the maybeboard are early game ramp, repeatable draw for only you, reanimation and more Zombie evasion.

Other cards to consider adding from the maybeboard.

Some cards to consider cutting:

Good luck with your deck.

Tur on Hidden Power - Mono-Color - …

3 months ago

Hello everyone! This will be a forum post for a "Commander - Hidden Power" series. My goal is to show relatively inexpensive cards which are often overlooked by commander players in semi-competitive and casual play. (This post is not designed for competitive play.) If you enjoy the topic, please upvote the post or provide positive feedback and I will consider creating similar posts.

The powerful cards I plan on discussing are mono-color cards which are strong with big mana in commander.

I will provide one card per mono-color identity. These cards will not include x-spells nor multi-color identity spells. (I.e. no Torment of Hailfire nor Zacama, Primal Calamity)

It is obvious that big mana is a huge part of semi-competitive play. Whether it is from ramping through creatures, artifacts, enchantments, instants, sorceries, or lands. Big mana is pretty fun. Mana doubling effects from lands are especially useful. In this article, I'll be focusing on mana doubling from lands, but other ways to generate big mana are always possible

Here are some common big mana effects for each mono-color identity:

This is not an all inclusive list as Mana Flare, Heartbeat of Spring, Keeper of Progenitus, Sword of Feast and Famine, et cetera would work just as well. In each mono-color identity the artifacts Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power, and Extraplanar Lens can be used, however the black and green color identities have an advantage for mono-color double mana effects. Furthermore, green contains cards such as Seedborn Muse, Awakening, and Wilderness Reclamation which allow for more interactions.

Well, let us begin in WUBRG order!

White: Sacred Mesa

This card is relatively unused. According to EDHREC, Sacred Mesa is played in 1511/849227 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. You'd be surpized how powerful this card is with double mana. Imagine making some number of pegasus at instant speed as either blockers or attackers for your next turn. (The upkeep cost can be paid by making a summoning sick pegasus during your turn.) Not to mention power and toughness buffing effects are ideal with Sacred Mesa, examples include Dictate of Heliod, Cathars' Crusade, Caged Sun, or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.

It is often compared to Luminarch Ascension because they have similar effects. Yes, it makes a 4/4 angel instead of a 1/1 pegasus.

However, Luminarch Ascension has many downsides:

  • You have to have four quest counters to use the ability. (That is, you have to not lose life during an opponents turn four times.) This creates a huge target on your life total and you'll see it surely chip away.
  • Bounce effects, such as Cyclonic Rift really mess it up. Welcome back to square one!
  • Common cards, such as Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider prevent quest counters from even occurring. Vampire Hexmage or Hex Parasite are also options to remove the counters.

Sacred Mesa is way more versatile and does not have such downsides. Not to mention is it only three mana, ideal for Sun Titan recursion.

Blue: Compulsion

It is very rare to see this wonderful card. According to EDHREC, Compulsion is played in 1000/945324 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. Having an activated draw ability with very little downside on a blue enchantment is insane. Ideal when paired with Teferi's Ageless Insight or Thought Reflection. There are a few cards which have a similar effect, such as Triskaidekaphile or Kefnet the Mindful without having to discard a card, but having a two mana activation is much more versatile. I suppose that an argument could be made with Training Grounds, but that is too much just to make the Kefnet the Mindful ability more cost effective. Furthermore, discarding a specific card like Echo of Eons, Wonder, or a shuffle Eldrazi such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth has some nice synergy. (In fact, it should be played in most bant enchantress decks, such as the commander Tuvasa the Sunlit. Replenish for life!)

Black: Chainer, Dementia Master

This is a wonderful card, but a little pricey compared to the previous two cards. According to EDHREC, Chainer, Dementia Master is played in 6344/983251 (1%) decklists and is approximately ten dollars. Yes, we all know that you can abuse Chainer, Dementia Master with Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star with sacrifice outlets such as Phyrexian Altar. Suppose we don't want to abuse this card into the ground is it still just good card? Yes. We can fill up or graveyard with Buried Alive or Entomb and get back a creature card, or we can grab a creature card from an opponents graveyard. It can also be used to interrupt graveyard combos, such as Aristocrats by using the ability on an opponents Butcher Ghoul with the undying trigger on the stack.

Red: Scourge of Kher Ridges

An extremely powerful and undervalued card. According to EDHREC, Scourge of Kher Ridges is played in 1005/912333 (0%) decklists and is under three dollars. If you're able to untap with Sourge of Kher Ridges and double mana, your opponents are going to have a rough time. As you can put multiple activations on the stack, it provides you with a very high on-board presence. Even within a response to removal. I've heard players complain that Scourge of Kher Ridges dies too quick to removal and my answer is "from your opponents perspective it needs to die before you're able to untap". Ideal with lifelink (and deathtouch) equipment such as Basilisk Collar or Shadowspear.

Green: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

Typically unseen in play. According to EDHREC, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is played in 4786/880991 (1%) decklists and is approximately five dollars. It is odd how unused Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is compared to Ezuri, Renegade Leader when they basically have the same effect. Overrun as an activated ability which is stackable multiple times. I agree that Ezuri, Renegade Leader is better in elf tribal decks, however Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is great in most big mana decks. Ideal for wide aggro. Tall aggro will gain the benefit of trample. If you don't have extra creatures you can animate your lands as 1/1 attackers, correction 7/7 attackers. (Pretty interesting because these attackers get around Cyclonic Rift, they're lands.) You can also get some payback by animating your opponents lands in response to a creature board wipe. (From that reasoning it can be paired with cards such as Ascendant Evincar and Crovax, Ascendant Hero to destroy opponents lands through animation.)

All in all, these are relatively unused cards which have a lot hidden power with big mana. If your deck is mono-colored and designed for big mana spells or abilities, think about giving these cards a chance. See if they work well for you and your playgroup.

Profet93 on Mind taking with Memnarch

3 months ago

I haven't been keeping up with new sets since March 2020, as such, I only know the older cards listed above rather than newer ones. Adding some of the above suggestions are worthwhile. That being said, Deserted Temple might be worth an inclusion solely for the fact that if you have infinite colorless and need to filter it, you can utilize the untap effect of rings to continuously untap temple and an island to add blue. By swapping out an island for this, you can eliminate both Prismite and Staff of Domination. Prismite's only goal is to filter and staff is an infinite mana outlet. Given your commander is already an outlet, is this necessary? Staff is winmore, IMO. I could stay and be helpful from time to time without the combo, it can be useful should you not have temple in play to filter and you need to win that turn. Just worth considering at the least.

More cuts as follows....

Grand Architect + Pil Pala - Architect is okay on it's own, it's pal is not. Better to swap both for either more draw, removal or tutors in order to ensure you don't have dead cards. Whenever adding a combo to a deck, you need to consider the cost to benefit. The cost of it potentially being a dead card, use on it's own, the slot it's taking up for another card in your maybeboard, etc....

Kuldotha Forgemaster - Works better in artifact token decks so that you can reliably use it without much investment. How has it played for you?

Caged Sun > Gauntlet of Power - Personal preference really, but I would rather pay 1 more mana to ensure my opponents don't double theirs.

Extraplanar Lens - Again, personal preference. But to exile your own land and potentially help opponents? Assuming you run snow-covered to stop that, wouldn't your meta eventually catch on? Further assuming that isn't the case, you are still down a land. It's a prime target for removal. The definition of high risk, high reward. I understand you have counterspells to mitigate this. I suppose it comes down to how much artifact removal they have.

Doubling Cube - You need 7 mana for it to be positive. It's winmore. Much better in decks that are big mana like Omnath, cabal coffer decks (ironically I own one and still dont do so, despite reliably finding coffers + urborg with tutors).

Max_Hammer on I’m Rick Grimes, Bitch 2.0

3 months ago

Howdy, I think your mana base could use some work-shopping. As for what you have right now, it's good. You don't need to remove anything, nothing here is hurting you. However, there might be something you missed. The only reason I can see for having this number of basics is for Emeria, but I think you could get even more value elsewhere. For the record, I'm not saying to include all of these, but I am giving you some choices as to what you might wanna include. I suggested the ones that seemed like the best choices.

Removal:

For removal, we have a few choices. Scavenger Grounds is graveyard hate, which is fine because we only have one piece of recursion and it's Emeria. Blast Zone is pretty solid removal, just in case. Field of Ruin can get rid of someone else's Emeria or other problem land. Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire can be removal when you need it, and a land when you don't. And lastly, Kabira Takedown  Flip in a token deck takes down pretty much anything without hexproof.

Protection:

Your stuff is important! Keep it safe with these cards. Eiganjo Castle is nice for anyone especially important, as can Karakas, if you can swallow the high pricetag. Sejiri Shelter  Flip can keep a creature safe once, assuming you don't need the mana. Nephalia Academy is fun when playing against specific deck strategies. Now, for a lot of them all at once, Kor Haven, Mystifying Maze, and Labyrinth of Skophos (With a shoutout to Maze of Ith) all prevent people from bonking you too hard.

Misc.

Everything else that wasn't in those two categories. Windbrisk Heights can play you a free Mass Calcify when you need it, just for swinging with 3 tokens. Reliquary Tower because this is Commander. War Room, depending on how much draw you need. Idyllic Grange may as well replace a Plains if you plan to keep focusing on Emeria. Arcane Lighthouse is just another Detection Tower effect. And for the final one, Karoo. I dig the bouncelands. They're perfect turn 2 plays and might help you ramp a little bit extra.

And one more thing aside from all of this! Caged Sun is, in my opinion, better than Gauntlet of Power. One extra mana for blocking out my opponents feels worth it.

Romer on Azusa and the Eldrazi Forest

6 months ago

Zombiemaster247: Interesting, I hadn't thought of them because individually they're not that great and getting all 3 is challenging in a singleton format. And yet... I do have a few ways to tutor up multiple lands now. I'll keep it in mind, might be a good add in the future.

Profet93:

  • Forsaken Monument is there to add an extra to a quarter of my mana sources and as a bonus, lets me gain life from a quarter of my spells. I originally had Caged Sun but realized I had so few green mana sources that it wasn't all that helpful. I suppose I could go back to Mana Reflection or even Selvala, Heart of the Wilds instead.
  • Mystic Forge I'm less into for this particular deck. I do run it in a colourless deck and in an artifact deck but here, it feels like it would work with fewer cards than Forsaken Monument does. And I don't love adding it just for that one combo with Ugin, the Ineffable

Guerric on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

6 months ago

H-E-N-R-Y

Thanks! I will. I'll probably add some cards soon- I've been looking so slot in Esper Sentinel and/or Smuggler's Share, and I'd love to put Avacyn, Angel of Hope in, so those may be coming depending on how my experiences are going. I'll probably put down a few more gameplay reports too.

kookoo

I'm not running Maskwood Nexus and never have. It's on the maybe-board because someone suggested it, more for the second ability than the first. Making a changeling every turn is a way to pump out angels/counters and some may choose this, but I personally don't like changelings in this deck and as such am not running it, and probably won't. Gauntlet of Power is a good card and is very similar to Caged Sun. The reason I am not running them is that they are too mana intensive and often get destroyed before you can take advantage of them. That being said in a slower or more removal-light meta they can be amazing.

Load more