Castle Garenbrig

Land

Castle Garenbrig enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Forest.

{T}:Add {G}.

{2}{G}{G}, {T}: Gain six {G}. Spend that mana only to cast creature spells or activate abilities of creatures.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Pioneer	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

Profet93 on Her Royal Fluffness

4 weeks ago

seshiro_of_the_orochi

Fair enough on both points.

Regarding Sakura vs. Wall, it's hard to say. Personally, I go with Sakura as it brings lands into play and can be used in response to removal. You dont really have use for instant speed mana that wall of roots provides (correct me if I'm wrong). It's a small negligible difference, but most people run Sakura over wall for those reasons.

What is the purpose of snow-covered lands?

I'm on the fence about seedborn muse. Assuming you have flash, it allows you to play reactively and prevent/mitigate board wipes which is arguably your deck's biggest weakness. Given you only have 2 (correct me if I'm wrong) sources of flash, none of them tutorable, you're just hoping you draw into them. I understand you have enough draw per your previous comment, but rather than hoping to draw it to provide a neat synergy with your flash creatures, why not add a different card that directly impacts your deck? You also dont have a lot of instants and mana dorks/rocks that would allow you to justify something like seedborn in the first place IMO. I say test it when possible and let us know how it goes, but I'm personally not a fan.

Regarding Nylea's - Unless fliers are prevalent in your meta, I dont see it's value here at all. What is it's primary purpose, removal or tutor? If the former, keep it. If the latter, remove it. You dont have enough non-basics to justify using it and utilizing it for basics is a waste of mana. You already have Whiptongue to deal with fliers, and it is tutorable. If you're looking for another X spell, I might suggest Voracious Hydra - As it is cheapish $ wise, acts as removal and a creature or just a really big beater. Not necessarily the best card for this deck, but I wanted to see your thoughts on it.

Castle Garenbrig - While a non-basic, taking 1 damage each turn (at most from Primal) for ramp for over 30% of your deck is worth it.

Momentous Fall - Another user suggested, I recommend it wholeheartedly. If you feel you have enough draw thats fine, but this card won me more games than I can count.

Are you okay with combos?

Profet93 on Azusa, lost but seeking

1 month ago

Potential Lands

Boseiju, Who Endures - Removal

Castle Garenbrig - Ramp, not necessary given your 1 drops, lower amount of creatures. But its floor is slightly lower and ceiling is slightly higher than average, so I believe it is a worthy inclusion

Field of the Dead - Free zombies! Such a good inclusion, don't sleep on it. Imagine with boundless realms, scapeshift, etc....

Misty Rainforest/similar lands/ETB Tapped Fetchlands - Too much value with crucible to ignore. Not to mention it allows you to shuffle if you have a top deck utilization such as Oracle of Mul Daya, top, etc....

Sanctum of Ugin - Nice tutor effect, not necessary but I've found it extremely helpful. Given in Azusa we run out of cards quickly, this allows you to tutor for either Kozilek to refill your hand.

Yavimaya Hollow - Protection, not needed but nice to have. Also, politics.

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth - Not needed but allows you to tap maze for green mana, ancient tomb, etc...

Potential Creatures

Fierce Empath - Tutor for ulamog or kozilek for draw or removal. Or just any higher CMC creature you need really. Not necessary but I've always enjoyed him

Lotus Cobra - Ramp! Much better with fetches. Speaking of fetches....

Ramunap Excavator - Redundancy for crucible of worlds. More easily recurabble as well.

Regal Force - Tooth and nail into avenger + regal.

Scute Swarm - MASSIVE token generation, even better with regal

Tireless Tracker - Draw, slow, better with Lotus cobra. Not necessary, but if you find yourself running out of gas consistently, this might be worth considering.

Other Potential Sorceries

All Is Dust - Wipe (over Spine of Ish Shah for Sure) that synergizes with Sanctum of Ugin. I've done this more times than I can count

Finale of Devastation - Like an additional G-Sun Zenith but with a higher ceiling. Also, a wincon

Rishkar's Expertise - While not optimal for your build per say, it has a high ceiling. Thought it was worth mentioning.

Scapeshift - Tutor, landfall trigger, trigger field of the dead. Synergy with land recursion such as crucible or ramunap. Should you ever wish to consider a token landfall package given your lack of creatures, this would supplement that. Not needed but nice to have

Given the amount of suggestions, you can either tell me what you like/want to include and I can provide suggestions for cuts based on that, or I can just go through your list right now and provide you my thoughts. Lmk what you think!

Delphen7 on Storing Conditional Mana

1 month ago

Say I control Kruphix, God of Horizons.

I tap the following:

• Castle Garenbrig for it's second ability
• A snow land
• A treasure

On a following turn, do their restrictions/typing still apply? (ie can I only spend the 6 colorless on creatures, is one of the colorless considered snow mana, and is one of the colorless still treasure mana?)

artaud21 on Azusa goes Turbo(land)

3 months ago

Boundless Realms - This spell can only find basics which are not that plenty (especially when drained with fetches), they ETB tapped and overall it's not I'm focused on. Using it for Scute or Avenger is just overkill as I only need to crack a fetch 3 times to get 64 insects or 6/7 plants to finish the game. I'd rather play Reshape the Earth which has game ending potential on its own (Field of the Dead + 9 lands) even if it costs 2 more mana.

Scapeshift - I'm considering this but I would need to find room for mass-land returners (World Shaper) to make it more of the ramp spell than quality one. Azusa with Crucible effect may not be enough to return all sacced lands in short period. Obviously would be much better with Cradle which I don't possess though.

I've been playing Genesis Wave for a long time with great success (Turn 4-5 wins happened) and it was hard decision to cut it but I need to keep big-spells count as low as possible especially I can play combo now. As for Sol Ring I'd rather use Mana Crypt for T1 Azusa but still it gets negated by Ouphe, destroyed by Bane and doesn't trigger landfall effects.

Rude Awakening - I don't see it as part of the combo as it requires 3 parts (only 2 can be tutored for) and 11+ mana to run (which is a lot) and there are cheaper effects to untap lands. As for wincon it doesn't generate that much pressure as even 20 2/2 land-creatures can only kill one player and I'm not eager to lose any of my lands in combat.

Petrified Field - I did run it for a long time but needed to cut less important utility lands for Forests as I found myself color-hungry too many times.

Regal Force - it's definitely a powerhouse but I need to keep rigor in amount of cards in each mana slot. CMC 7 has 3 creature slots already occupied by Avenger (wincon), Hulk (combo) and Wurm (pet card). It's definitely viable for people not fond of Diune series (Shai-Hulud) or Wurms as a species ;)

Garruk, Primal Hunter - I did play him back in a days but I prefer cheaper (Life's Legacy) or repeatable (Greater Good) effects for card draw (even if I lose a creature in a process). Its ability can be weakened by killing biggest creature and Return of the Wildspeaker is better anyway.

Castle Garenbrig - it's good indeed except for occassions when I don't have Forest or a fetch in my starting hand which happens from time to time. It's obviously better with mana doublers but can be ok in my build as well. I don't have it currently but I will and test it.

Sensei's Divining Top - I've tested it already. Sure it ordered my top for Augur and friends but fetches "do" it anyway and sometimes I wished it way another card - that could ramp me for instance. I'd rather play Winding Way than it.

Elvish Aberration - I'm currently testing it. The thing is it can be cycled Turn 2 to keep the momentum for next turn Azusa and can produce infinite mana with Ashaya + Quirion combo. The second one didn't happen yet but it's possible. Anyway this slot is still interchangeable as there are so many 6 CMC creatures to use in a deck that finding a perfect one is hard. It can be Duplicant, Ulvenwald Hydra, Kogla, Sweet-Gum Recluse or even Orchard Strider as long as it won't clog a hand and can be tutor target in some occassions.

Panglacial Wurm - It's a pet card of mine and effective one to boot. Combat trick/End Step fatty is one option but more often than not it's used for power-matter draw effects. Mana flood is not that scary when you can cast it from library by cracking a fetch. Bonus points for Shai-Hulud esque.

Shigeki, Jukai Visionary - it's perfect T2 play before T3 Azusa and can be used right after dropping 2 bonus lands to ramp. Channel ability is super useful even if little costly.

gttswiafr on castle garenbrig ability and mutate

3 months ago

so Castle Garenbrig has that thing where you get 6 mana for creatures and creature abilities, but what I want to know is does that work with mutate or not. I would assume that it would only be for abilities of creatures on the battlefield but idk.

Profet93 on Azusa goes Turbo(land)

3 months ago

+1 . an initial look at your decklist got me confused but after reading your detailed description, I sincerely find it unique and enjoyable! As a fellow Azusa player, I have a couple of ideas I wanted to run by you.

Boundless Realms - Ramp and deck thinning, landfall effects (scute), etc...while i understand you are trying to keep the average cmc lower as to make it more competitive, I believe this warrants a spot as it "doubles" your mana without the risk of mana reflection for example

Scapeshift - Similar to above and facilitates landfall (ex: field of the dead), titania , etc... scute

Why no Genesis wave or sol ring, because of teeg and collector ouphe? I read your description but I feel sol ring is usually very helpful and almost always the best turn 1 play

rude awakening - This card is great with nykthos, ashaya , a ritual, a wincon, all in 1. (Imagine Cradle, if only). Not to mention that it can be part of a combo ....

Rude Awakening + Eternal Witness + Kogla, the Titan Ape - First and foremost, it acts as artifact + creature removal, has survivability through 3 humans in the deck + commander, most notably being eternal witness. Using the 3, you get infinite mana. Rude awakening untap all your lands, eternal witness get back rude awakening and recast, kogla to return eternal witness.

Petrified Field - Synergy with realms uncharted, recursion of important utility lands, synergy with titania.

Regal Force - Tooth and nail synergy with avenger + titiania + scute

Garruk, Primal Hunter - I like him, he's not necessary but a solid card. He adds devotion for nykthos which may or not be an issue for your mana base. He provides a solid blocker which he can utilize his second ability on. He's a permanent version of soul's majesty at his worst. Ult is rarely relevant

Castle Garenbrig - Swap a forest or unimpactful nonbasic land.

Sensei's Divining Top - Set up topdeck with oracle, courser, augur, kozilek distortion, instant spell top deck (or you have flash, digging 3 cards is powerful even more so). If you are worried about bane or collector, just put it back on top and draw a card.

How have the following cards worked out for you....

Elvish Aberration - Expensive ramp or forest search in a pinch? Doesnt seem worth it

Panglacial Wurm - How many times have you cracked the fetch mid combat, thats so funny. Always bluffing, I like that. Aside from seedborn muse, how often do you have 7 mana to cast him? I feel 7 mana would be better spent on boundless realms for example. I understand the searchabiltiy factor is cool, but is it not overcosted?

Shigeki, Jukai Visionary - Super cool card, how has it been working for you? I like the second ability. Tell me more about your experience with this.

Profet93 on Azusa - Land Rush

3 months ago

ultima333 +1 , double digits now! - Disagree with your decision to remove mirrorpool. Highly versatile tool that warrants it coming in tapped. It all depends on what you're going for though. I just like have 2x avengers, regal forces, genesis waves, e-wits, etc...

No Eldrazi Temple? I see you have some eldrazi, it couldn't hurt given you are already running eye of ugin.

Rude Awakening - Cradle + Temple + Temple Copy + Temple Copy or just with a bunch of tokens on board. While it does make cradle vulnerable, you will have created enough mana to have won by that point.

How does, if at all, staff of domination go infinite in this deck? Perhaps I'm missing it or its in here for value or you dont want combos. If you added rude awakening, then you would be able to go infinite by untaping cradle, the now creature for more mana than it costs to untap staff. Not to mention, its a last minute resort beatdown with so many lands. It acts as a ritual, albeit late game. Sorry I'm so hung up on it, I suppose it's my pet card. Anyways....

Sanctum of Ugin - To search for either kozilek for draw or ulamog for removal. I like to have green yavimaya + eldrazi temple + sanctum + eye of ugin (reduces by 2, taps itself b/c of yavimaya for 1) and cast all of dust, then searching for kozileks for refueling.

Castle Garenbrig - Cut a forest, ramp.

I would swap half your forest with snow covered to more easily trigger field of the dead.

Silklash Spider - Is this a meta call, patching up a potential weakness? Or is this just one of the threats you mentioned? Other potential swaps or cards in general to consider are...

Nissa, Vital Force - +1 --> Untap cradle, your thespians stage/vesuva that copied an opposing cabal coffers, etc..., -3 --> Recursion rarely hurts, given that 72% of your deck is permanent based. -6 --> You only need to wait 1 turn cycle before you get an ultimate that says you are the archenemy

Jack-Frost on Wrath of the Revel

3 months ago

I already have a copy of Grim Monolith so the money aspect isn't an issue. With regards to playing things faster, it would definitely work, and definitely be impactful, but i'm happy with how things are. I'll playtest it with MindStone as I prefer the immediate mana and being able to tap rather than slower mana like Steve.

I've considered Ancient Tomb but I never liked being pinged every time I tapped it. I'll look at it again for the deck though.

Castle Garenbrig is already in the deck. It's a fantastic card and I love using it.

Skullclamp is a great card, and I ran it at one point, but spending the extra mana each time to use it slows things down and I generally don't want to spend the mana on it. My dragons don't die that often, and when they do it's often to exile. I like Greater Good effects better where I can sacrifice them at will and I only have to pay the cost once to put it on the battlefield.

Thank you for the suggestions! The deck has definitely been improving consistently. I generally don't have a budget for my decks as I've been playing for over 20 years and have owned many of the pricy cards for years (before they were pricy).