Cavern Harpy

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Legality

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

Cavern Harpy

Creature — Harpy Beast

Flying

When Cavern Harpy enters the battlefield, return a blue or black creature you control to its owner's hand.

Pay 1 life: Return Cavern Harpy to its owner's hand.

Artatras on The Many-Faced God - [Primer]

3 years ago

Glad to hear that!

I really wish Death's Shadow could work with Lazav. It would be amazing. Unfortunately, it does not. The thing is, Shadow's ability is a static one instead of being ETB. This means that Lazav would keep that effect and immediately die by getting -X/-X, where X is your life total. I really like Death's Shadow as a card, but it is actually very hard to make it work in EDH. One of the few ways is in a The Mimeoplasm deck, where you can give your commander 13 +1/+1 counters without having to copy the actual Shadow. As of right now, Hunted Horror is the second best creature that we have access to in terms of a power/mana cost ratio. I hope Wizards will eventually end up completing the Theros Titan cycle (the likes of Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger) with a powerful Dimir version, because those creatures would be perfect for this deck. Low mana cost, ability to get into the graveyard by themselves and powerful on-attack triggers. Fingers crossed!

Cavern of Souls is more of a meta call. In my playgroup, for example, Lazav never gets countered (apart from the cases where I can immediately threaten lethal with haste) because my opponents prefer to just use removal on him, and I probably would do the same. However, there is no real downside in including Cavern in this deck , so I can see your point.

Diabolic Intent is a card that I had in my first versions of the deck, but I ended up cutting it because it was a little suboptimal. More often than not, I found myself having it stuck in my hand with no creature to sacrifice. Sacrificing Lazav is out of question. As for the other creatures, there are only 13 in the deck. The chances of having one of them in hand alongside Diabolic Intent are pretty low. And of those creatures, some like Cavern Harpy, Hunted Horror and Phyrexian Dreadnought can't even be used. A two-mana tutor is great, but it is too unreliable in this deck. Insidious Dreams, Grim Tutor and Lim-Dul's Vault are much more effective.

As for Tainted Strike, it is absolutely worth considering. Being cheap and instant speed makes it really efficient. Due to it's non-repeatable nature, I would only use it when I'm sure I'll be oneshotting someone (that is, when Lazav is a copy of the Dreadnought). If you want something that can be used more than once, Glistening Oil is also pretty decent. However, as you have said, there aren't too many available slots in my list. I've come to a point where if I want to fit a new card in, that card needs to do the same thing as the one I am replacing but in a better, more efficient way.

I really hope you end up building the deck, perhaps with your own twist. If you are worried about endless waves of opposing removal spells and counterspells, refer to the General Strategy section where I talk about how to handle that by playing patiently and not overextending.

Cheers!

Spell_Slam on Ninjas Tribal Dimir

3 years ago

Looks great! Do you have a special rule with your friends to let you use Ninjustu from the Command zone (à la Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow)? If not, do you just plan on casting it for 4 mana?

Cavern Harpy is a pretty big omission from the deck. It's a cheap and evasive threat that also bounces back your ninjas AND can also return itself to hand for only 1 life, making it near unkillable and completely resetable for more ninja shenanigans.

Do you play in a heavy Blue meta? I think Slither Blade would be slightly better than Merfolk Spy.

Mothdust Changeling also fits the bill as a potentially evasive "ninja" for value.

Withdraw can be a pretty cheeky spell in that you can target on of your creatures with the "Pay 1" ability and essentially get a good ninja reset/tempo spell that can also target two of your opponets' creatures when they are tapped out.

Skyscanner gets you a lot of value like Cloudkin Seer and Pilgrim's Eye.

I get the idea with the adventure creatures, but Smitten Swordmaster seems a bit weak because he has no evasion.

I'm also not a huge fan of Aven Eternal or Daggerdome Imp.

Some of your removal seems slow. You could get your hands on the downgraded Cast Down. Gigadrowse also seems like something you'd want.

Greenstuff on

3 years ago

Cavern Harpy. Just discovered this card, AWESOME way to get around Commander Tax with Lazav, the Multifarious !

gingerthewritingdog on Yarok, Aluren Alarm

3 years ago

Also Cavern Harpy would be great in here, as it can bounce itself for 1 life, which is useful if it's already on the board and you need it to get your combo started with aluren/intruder alarmn.

Senomar on The goodest fish (3c foodchain)

3 years ago

What about adding the Cavern Harpy + Aluren + Ukkima, Stalking Shadow combo as a backup plan ?

enpc on Whale Food cEDH

3 years ago

dingusdingo: If you have a look at MOST Tazri lists, they run all three of the aforementioned allies. This is because Food Chain, a CFE creature and General Tazri is not a win condition. Tazri still has to tutor up one of the actual outlet creatures. Because if you run just one of them and lose access to it due to self exile, even with FC, a CFE creature and Tazri, you still can't win the game. Sot it's not a matter or "Whether your favorite Tazri list runs 3 outlets instead of 1 doesn't really matter to me", it's actually a matter of basically every Tazri list running multiple win conditions so they don't brick their deck.

You never once made mention about how this deck could run a hulk package, especially since you liked running Nomads en-Kor which is a white card and such can't be run in the deck.

My first comment explained the value of having the commander be part of your win conditon loop. Your first comment was "why is this deck a thing?" like somehow this deck is being thrust upon you such that you have to play it. My comment to you was simply, you didn't need to comment on somebody else's deck for the sole reason of telling them that their deck is less good than other options out there, and this was only after providing a simple explanation (to another user) about the benefit of having a win condition in the command zone and you arguing with me about it.

While that comment was made to highlight your actions, please be assured that I have zero interest in posting anything on you lists, given the vitriol I have been met with while simply trying to explain something.

Parosox: Apologies about this getting derailed on your list. I have seen other whale wolf decks running an package Aluren with Cavern Harpy since these two also form an infinite loop. While your current build isn't an Aluren one, yo ucould lean into it a bit as there is a good overlap between FC and aluren cards.

SideBae on Yuriko, the Sadist

4 years ago

So I have a few suggestions. Feel free to ignore any/all of them.

  1. I notice Mindlock Orb is in your MB. I think this effect can be powerful in the right meta, but if you do want to run it I think you should run Ashiok, Dream Render first. Being 3 mana rather than 4 is a big deal.

  2. I like that you're running Ponder -- consider running Preordain, too. I realize it's harder to stack your deck for Yuriko triggers with Preordain, but thinking of it as just a 1 mana cantrip should show how good it is. After all, there's a reason it's super-duper banned in modern. Additionally, you can make your Brainstorm a lot better by adding some cheap shuffle effects; currently, if you don't have Yuriko triggers happening, you're likely to get Brainstorm-locked (stuck with two blanks on top of your deck). Traditionally these shuffle effects come from fetchlands like Polluted Delta or Verdant Catacombs, but since these lands are expensive AF, it's worth noting there're other lands that do similar things. Bad River, Flood Plain and Rocky Tar Pit ("Slow Fetches") are good for budget builds, as is Terramorphic Expanse.

  3. If you want to speed up your deck, running as few ETB-tapped lands as possible is pretty much essential. I would cut Submerged Boneyard and Dimir Guildgate for Watery Grave, Drowned Catacomb, Sunken Ruins, Underground River, or even just basics.

  4. Yuriko presents an interesting dilemma as a general: you want your average CMC very high, in order to keep his triggers powerful, but you also want to be able to cast your spells. In general, people use alternate-casting-cost spells to deal with this. Consider running things like Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, Temporal Trespass (which makes me giggle when I see it played), The Magic Mirror, Commandeer, etc.

  5. There're other creatures you should consider running, especially if you consider them as recastable after being ninjutsu-ed back to your hand: Baleful Strix, Thalakos Seer, Snapcaster Mage (if you're rich), Cavern Harpy (a personal favorite), Murderous Rider (which strictly better than Murder), Man-o'-War, Rishadan Cutpurse, Spellseeker... Burglar Rat might be funny, though probably not too powerful.

  6. There're some ways to stack your deck not included in your deck. Mystical Tutor and Vampiric Tutor (though vampiric is expensive now) are really, really good. Also note that Counterbalance is another way to exploit topdeck manipulation, especially if you have your Sensei's Divining Top out. Don't forget Mystic Sanctuary.

  7. Don't discount Windfall and Fact or Fiction. They're really good. Windfall also works well with Narset, Parter of Veils or Notion Thief.

  8. Finally, don't forget about artifact ramp. Sol Ring is obviously the all-star here, but I think you should be running 2-mana rocks rather than 3-mana rocks. Consider running Arcane Signet, Talisman of Dominance, Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, Prismatic Lens, Sky Diamond, Charcoal Diamond or Coldsteel Heart instead of Commander's Sphere, Worn Powerstone and Seer's Lantern.

Right. That's all I got. Good luck!

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