Cephalid Shrine

Enchantment

Whenever a player plays a spell, counter that spell unless that player pays (X), where X is the number of cards in all graveyards with the same name as the spell.

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

Discussion (7)

Freeway1312 on Mishra's Jank Machine [Primer]

3 years ago

There's one additional card with a similar "counter" effect that I forgot to mention in my reply above: Bazaar of Wonders .

This is a weird one. It's both graveyard hate and stax in one, and besides costing 5 mana, is actually a better Cephalid Shrine since it cares about the battlefield as well as graveyards. I still suspect it's not good enough given the singleton nature of EDH, but it can punish your opponents when it comes to commonly-played artifacts such as Sol Ring , in addition to punishing decks that have a lot of overlapping cards with other players at the table.

Notably, it shares the "World" supertype with Nether Void , which means you can't have both in play at the same time. Perhaps it would be an acceptable replacement for the Void in a more budget-friendly version of Mishra?

Freeway1312 on Mishra's Jank Machine [Primer]

3 years ago

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions, channelfireball12345!

Unfortunately, one of the biggest issues with Mishra is the lack of cards that directly synergize with his ability. I'm always hoping that another effect like this will be printed, to give me some additional options. Aside from the cards already in the deck, the only similar effects are Planar Chaos, Cephalid Shrine, and Dovescape.

• Planar Chaos was in an earlier version of this deck, but it is super inconsistent. I don't like the fact that it lets 50% of spells through without countering them, and you have a 50/50 shot of losing it on the next upkeep after you cast it. It can be played on the same turn you attempt to combo off (for a bit of extra protection), but I think it's too costly/risky for what it does.
• Cephalid Shrine is a neat card, but unfortunately isn't very strong given the singleton nature of EDH. It could do some work in the right meta, but even in the best case scenario it's probably only adding a tax of 1 or 2 mana to a small number of your opponents' spells.
• Lastly, while a resolved Dovescape would likely be very powerful in this deck, the current rules about hybrid mana in EDH don't allow for it. And the more I think about it, I'm not sure would even be worth it if it was allowed. It would be fun to test, though!

To address your suggested additions:

• I think the cons of Bojuka Bog outweigh the pros in this deck. The fact that it enters tapped and can only work at sorcery speed make it way less flexible, in my opinion. I also think the cost to activate Scavenger Grounds is less pricey than the "opportunity cost" of playing a tapland in a 32-land deck. Put another way, when I need the mana, Bojuka Bog is a dead card in my hand. Even though Scavenger Grounds sacrifices itself, if I'm popping it I'm probably trying to deny someone else a win on their turn, which is worth the setback. Also, the symmetrical nature of Scavenger Grounds isn't likely to be a huge detriment to my gameplan, even though I do (obviously) have some graveyard synergies. In fact, the ability to hit multiple opponents might matter in a number of games. Nevertheless, I'm open to doing some testing with Bojuka Bog!
• Tormod's Crypt has a similar problem with opportunity cost, as it takes up a card slot that I'm not sure I can spare just for this type of effect. Scavenger Grounds provides value even when its activated effect is irrelevant.
• Regarding Bloodstained Mire, there are currently 7 lands that this can fetch, between the singular Swamp and all the dual lands with either the swamp or mountain subtype. While this is a stax deck, it doesn't slow the game down to the point where I'm ever likely to run out of fetchable targets. I don't think the suggestion of adding another basic Swamp or Mountain is a bad one, but I am concerned about the blue mana requirements of the deck. The deck is much more heavily weighted blue, and has a number of double blue pips. With all the dual lands, fetches, and mana fixing artifacts, I will usually have all the black and/or red mana I need.

Thank you again for the friendly suggestions!

Matso on Murder Suicide

4 years ago

Thank you for your comments king-saproling! Glad you like the deck.

I like the substitution strategy for getting around resolving my original spell while still letting Hive Mind create copies for my opponents: if I kill myself too often I'll revisit these cards. I'm trying to stay away from sorcery speed tricks so that if I wheel with Hive Mind up I can cast spells between each resolution. The repeated no turn concept with Snap is hilarious, however I actively avoid putting infinite combos in my decks. Cephalid Shrine and Guile is another neat combo, but narrow and hard to fit in.

Thanks again!

king-saproling on Murder Suicide

4 years ago

This is very rad! You might like these: Nivmagus Elemental , Cephalid Shrine , Spark Double , Distant Melody , Banishing Knack , Renegade Tactics , Sunforger , Arcbond , Radiate , Knowledge Pool (when played after Hive Mind, but before a lose-the-game spell, it protects you from the spell while your opps will still have copies. also has interesting interaction with Zada/Mirrorwing as the originally-casted spell will still be copied for each creature, and potentially the second spell as well), Possibility Storm (works like Knowledge Pool), Dovescape (works like Knowledge Pool), Snap (potential for infinite mana. what makes it really interesting is that it untaps lands, so you can keep storing counters on Magosi and skip your next 1,000,000 turns. Why is this a good thing? Teferi's Protection), Guile (with Cephalid Shrine and your general, this lets you make infinite spirits. not great, but definitely weird!), Kaho, Minamo Historian , Mistveil Plains , Spellbinder

Hoobynobber7395 on Cephalids Give Syphilis

4 years ago

Thank you! I was definitely dedicated to it. I am replacing Xenograft with Cephalid Shrine more control and already have the cephalids to make this work well, might throw in Laboratory Maniac for the mill win though

Raging_Squiggle on Can I use the stack …

7 years ago

Yes it can. You just have to stack it all correctly. Because all the triggers happen upon casting, they stack in any way you want. This is what the stack will look like.

Top of stack
Cephalid Shrine's trigger
Thrumming Stone trigger.
Emrakul, the Promised End's trigger.
Emrakul, the Promised End creature spell.
Bottom of stack

In order to do this correctly, you must let Cephalid Shrine's trigger resolve before activating Guiding Spirit, and you must activate it before Thrumming Stone's trigger resolves.

derbrecher72 on Can I use the stack …

7 years ago

So I wonder if the following scenario would work:

I play Emrakul, the Promised End. As a reaction, I put Thrumming Stone's ability on the stack. As a reaction to THAT, I activate Guiding Spirit's ability. Finally, I counter Emrakul with Cephalid Shrine.

So what I want to happen, is that Emrakul is put into my graveyard, then on top of my library and finally I cast her because she is among the 4 cards that I look at with ripple.

If you know whether or not this would work, please let me know :)