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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
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

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legendofa on Tiers of card badness

1 week ago

Not all "bad" cards are created equal. As I see it, just like how there's build-around good cards, really good cards, and must-include cards, there's several tiers of cards that don't quite measure up.

At the top, there's the weird cards. These cards have unique effects. They're generally useful and/or interesting, but make lots of demands for deckbuilding and have no redundancy. Spellweaver Helix, Riku of Two Reflections, and Leyline of the Guildpact are some examples. Good for casual play and for "trying to make work".

Next is the draft fodder. Good if you don't have anything better, but easily replaceable. These cards get functionally reprinted a lot, and are usually pretty straightforward. I would put Cancel, Shock, and Alabaster Host Sanctifier as examples. You won't be ashamed to use them in Limited, and they work well as starters for a new collection, but they get outclassed quickly.

Next, and the first tier I would call truly bad cards, are the very inefficient cards and the cards that just don't do anything. They're significantly overcosted, or there's many better options. These cards might still be technically useful, or at least not actively harmful, but they can't compete with anything else. Mudhole, Razor Boomerang, and Aven Trooper go here.

Finally, there's the worst of the worst. The cards that actively hurt you and make it harder to play the game. If you put them in a deck, you're either trying to meme or you're going to Donate them. Alabaster Leech, Soldevi Steam Beast, and Goblin Elite Infantry fall into this group.

This is subjective and a continuum, so there's a lot of room to arrange individual cards. I've been reading Mark Rosewater's articles on bad cards, and designing Nihilist decks (example here), and there's been some forum discussion on what cards are worth using and which aren't. So it's been on my mind recently.

azja on yuriko edh 500

7 months ago

Hey thanks again for your comments on my primer :)

A few suggestions I have:

  1. Replace 2 mana enablers with weak/no abilities (such as Dimir Infiltrator and Gurmag Swiftwing) with 1 mana enablers (like Gudul Lurker) or stronger 2 mana enablers (i.e., Baleful Strix, Augury Owl).

  2. Replace 3 mana ramp (like Basalt Monolith, Dimir Locket) with 2 mana ramp (i.e., Dimir Signet or Talisman of Dominance).

  3. Soft permission spells such as Spell Pierce and Mana Leak are usually weak in budget/lower-powered pods because the games go longer. Some potential replacements could be Misdirection, Drown in the Loch.

  4. Cancel, Murder, Hero's Downfall, Perplex, Connive / Concoct and Rite of Undoing seem quite weak to me. Some budget-friendly cards I like that you might want to play are Curtains' Call, Portent, Far / Away, Discovery / Dispersal, Submerge, and Murderous Cut.

Good luck in your tournament!

enpc on Tutorless Commander?

1 year ago

Niko9: A lot of people build 75% decks which specifically exclude cards like tutors, so there is a decent cross section of what "tutorless" commander looks like.

I understand that this wasn't a poo-poo on tutors, but then it also raises the question about functional reprints. For example, in a slower more casual meta you could run Cancel and the fifty billion differnt varaints of it which again decreases variance but without adding tutoring at all.

AThiccNacho on Bruna's Wave of Light

1 year ago

Man, Bruna is one of the BEST budget commanders out there.

Kor Spiritdancer is an amazing card to have. With a ton of low drop auras, you can keep stacking her VERY quickly. You can use kor as a "fake" and draw out removal spells. Graceblade Artisan is similar, but more expensive and no draw.

Lightning Greaves is absolutely VERY important to have. Bruna bypasses shroud (same with Retether) and giving her a swing after cast is VERY important.

Helm of the Host - Any reason this is here? I feel like it doesn't do much of anything and for 5 mana, something like Arcane Signet would just be better because it ramps and usually isn't a "kill on sight" card. If you can copy Avacyn, i can understand, but that's 17 mana likely over 2-3 turns that's better spent elsewhere.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope <3 favorite MTG card!

Creatures like Invisible Stalker and Ascended Lawmage are REALLY good since hexproof is the best ability in MTG. When i play my Bruna deck, i often get targeted at the first chance, and cards with hexproof ensure my opponents have to work to get them off the board.

You should really consider these cheap cards:

Sovereigns of Lost Alara - Get ANY aura for free when voltron swinging. Can search for unblockable, indestructible, hexproof,... +10/+10 trample annihilator 2 (Eldrazi Conscription) or any other toolbox card.

Danitha Capashen, Paragon - Makes auras and equipment less to cast and comes STACKED With great abilities.

Auramancer's Guise - Gives +2/+2 for each aura on a creature AND vigilance?? Makes Kor Spiritdancer get +4/+4 for each aura on her... CRAZY good.

Ethereal Armor - Gives +1/+1 for each enchantment you control and gives first strike!

Open the Armory - VERY cheap tutor for aura/equipment.

Diplomatic Immunity - Gives shroud and has shroud so it's very difficult to remove the creature it's on. Bruna also does not care since she gets around shroud.

Counterspell - To replace Cancel as it's pretty bad and slower.

If you can spare a bit more cash: Nomad Mythmaker - REALLY good recursion and does NOT target so it gets around shroud.

I made my recommendations from Bruna, Enchantments of Alabaster I have a lot of other good stuff that i didn't feel like citing. Feel free to give it a look!

Robstar on Urza’s legion

1 year ago

multimedia thank you for your suggestions! I’m already making the requisite purchases to get those cards. I’m open to hearing more of what you have to say. I do however feel inclined towards keeping Curate but I do recognize having something like Cancel and Counterspell can be a useful tool to avoid interference from a board wipe or target creature removal.

multimedia on Urza’s legion

1 year ago

Hey, good start on a budget with what you have so far. Command Tower is a budget staple land for multicolored Commander decks and Arcane Signet is a budget staple mana rock.

Ramos, Dragon Engine can only be played in a five color deck using it as Commander or another five color Commander. It's activated ability has all five mana symbols and those symbols count toward it's color identity. Urza's color identity is only three colors Esper (black, white, blue). Because Urza doesn't have red and green that's why Ramos can't be played with Urza as Commander.

If you want aggro with Urza lets look at the beginning of the mana curve first, cards spots of 0-3 CMC only then we can look at the higher end of the mana curve. The first changes to consider is to remove all the nonartifact creatures and then later determine if they are worth a spot in your deck because they have abilities that help artifacts or Urza. I think you'll find that you don't need any of these creatures because artifact creatures can take their places. If you want to be aggro with Urza then you want to utilize Urza's artifact creature affinity to cast Urza quicker. To do this consistently Urza wants 0-2 CMC artifact creatures and some 3 CMC artifact creatures more than the rest.

Some of these creatures may be added back in later, most likely not, but for now lets build the creature base with only artifact creatures. For making upgrades lets look at best cards here with Urza and build around them? Arcbound Ravager and Portal to Phyrexia are the two best cards here with Urza because they're artifacts and they're abilities are more powerful compared to most other cards here. Ravager brings the aggro, but if aggro doesn't do it and you need more reach to win the game then Portal can do that. Lets start with Ravager and what makes it better with Urza? Modular and you have some here, more one drops can help toward Urza's artifact creature affinity and Ravager.

Steel Overseer adds to the +1/+1 counter strategy, it's powerful but only for artifact creatures and if trying to be aggro it's a good reason to play very few nonartifact creatures. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept goes well with Arcbound Ravager since with Ravager you want to sac artifacts and Silas lets you cast an artifact from your graveyard. It's deathtouch combined with Urza's menace makes it a creature who opponent is not going to block and lose two or more creatures blocking it. Baleful Strix, Triarch Praetorian, Malcator's Watcher are two drop artifact creatures who fly and who draw when enter the battlefield (ETB) or dies.


Some artifacts here are worse than others.

Think about limiting the amount of nonartifact spells to just the better ones you have here?

Equipment that increases the equipped creature's power equal to the amount of artifacts you control really ups the aggro since then any little artifact creature can become huge which combined with menace can make it a great attacker. I see Silver Myr and it's good here since counts twice for Urza, artifact creature affinity and ramp. Consider adding more artifact creature mana dorks who can make colored mana?

The budget Signets can help for ramp as well as color fixing which is really needed because the manabase here is pretty much all basic lands. Arcane Signet is a staple budget mana rock for ramp in Commander. Chromatic Lantern is fine for color fixing, but you're going to want more than that.

Some nonartifact creatures at the beginning of the mana curve can really help aggro and Urza.

Losheel, Clockwork Scholar is powerful with artifact creatures when attacking is what you want to be doing especially Constructs. Your artifact creatures don't take damage in combat meaning that opponents will have a difficult time choosing to block since their blockers might die, but your creatures will be fine. Losheel is also repeatable draw, once on each players turn when an artifact creature ETB you draw this includes when a Construct is created by Urza if you didn't have an artifact creature ETB before your end step.

Sai, Master Thopterist can be a repeatable source of artifact creatures, Thopters, to be attackers or sac fodder. Emry, Lurker of the Loch is like Silas Renn, Seeker Adept more ways to cast artifacts from your graveyard is good with Arcbound Ravager and other sac outlets.

That's it for this comment, but if you're still interested I'll give advice about the high end of the mana curve here to take more advantage of aggro into mid game and Portal to Phyrexia late game as well as some budget land options for the manabase. Would you like more advice?

Good luck with your deck.

Local_Hethen on Drafna EDH

1 year ago

Looks like a good start. Here some of my thoughts after a quick glance.

Remove Arcane Signet, it's mono-color. I know, you're thinking more mana with the Unwinding Clock, but if that's the case go with Sol Talisman, Dreamstone Hedron, Thran Dynamo, or Hedron Archive.

Remove the 5 CMC counters and go with the simple Counterspell or Cancel instead. You might be waiting for niche moments with the current counters.

I don't see much use for Training Grounds with the creatures you're running, or at least enough to warrant it.

Can't wait to see what you decide to do!

RiotRunner789 on Welcome to the Izzet League

1 year ago

It looks good. I would cut a few creatures, start by looking at the 6 CMC+ ones first. You probably want to get down to 15-18 creatures.

Add in 2-3 more mana rocks and cut a land. Should be able to run with 34-35 lands with a low mana curve and more rocks.

Get rid of Cancel. There are a million 3 cmc counterspells that are cancel+. I like Admiral's Order but any other counter will work. Spell Pierce can also be a bit of a dead card once you get to the mid-game or late game.

You have enough islands that High Tide would be good. Ophidian Eye is another curiosity combo win. Could consider Laboratory Maniac or labman effect to have another wincon. Then anything that cantrips or creates positive card advantage like Preordain or Frantic Search helps with any left over slots.

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