Codex Shredder

Artifact

{T}: Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

5, {T}, Sacrifice Codex Shredder: Return target card from your graveyard to your hand.

Discussion (51)

dingusdingo on Scheming Symmetry

1 week ago

Upon seeing the new M20 Scheming Symmetry I thought it had some potential for serious applications.

My first thought was slotting it in Lantern Control, being able to break parity on it with Codex Shredder and changing the Pyxis slot to Shriekhorn or something similar. It would work in tandem with or replace Whir of Invention , and breaking parity on it with a mill card means its Vampiric Tutor in modern at sorcery speed without life loss. Seems like a great application, but does the deck benefit from it over Whir of Invention or something else?

I also thought about a more control oriented build that tries to break parity on it with shuffle and mill effects outside a lantern kind of shell. Winds of Rebuke offers board control. Any kind of shuffle effect on an opponent also breaks parity on the card, so you could run cards like Psychic Surgery or Psychogenic Probe

I think there are a lot more ways to break parity on this card than people realize, and it will be Vampiric Tutor in modern. I'm also guessing buying a handful now to sell later could be profitable $$$

SynergyBuild on Urza-Breach Tron **NEW SPICY MODERN BREW**

1 week ago

If it isn't a part of your metagame, perhaps Codex Shredder 's recursion may be more in line with what you want.

newbuu2 on Urza, Lord High Artificer cEDH *Primer*

1 week ago

I'd say Paradox Engine -> Painter's Servant and Codex Shredder -> Grindstone .

Nerdytimesorwhatever on Urza! The Master of Artifacts (Budget: sub $150)

3 weeks ago

What's the goal of the deck? It seems pretty unfocused. I can see Codex Shredder , Crystal Shard and some other strange choices in there. Whats your budget? Cuz some easy improvements are removing cards that dont further your game plan like: Vedalken Humiliator War Tax why not Propaganda or a bounce-/Counterspell? Unsubstantiate for instance. Nezahl, is he your wincon? Shouldnt your wincon be tied to Urza, the biggest of chunguses? I know it may not make sense, but Brainstorm is way better than Lorthos because you can cast it vastly more often, amongst other stuff.

And these guys aren't necessarily bad Trophy Mage Trinket Mage Tribute Mage But why are you running them? You should have targets in mind, and cut the ones that don't further your game plan, which is, I presume, absolute crushing victory!

Just cut some of the higher costed stuff that don't add to your game plan like Deadeye Navigator and add in stuff like Torpor Orb , Cursed Totem and Chain of Vapor (pulls double duty as a potential ritual effect).

If any of this seems rude, I apologize. I am rather drunk and looking to help a bit. Urza is rad and I hope you enjoy playing him!

jeacaveo on Urza Proactive Control

3 weeks ago

jaymc1130 Thanks for dropping by.

The doubts you have, I justify in the individual card discussion or in 'Polymorph? Tidespout Tyrant?' section of the description.

Most of the cards you have problems with have synergy between them: Tidespout Tyrant and Arcum's Astrolabe let you draw your deck without Urza. Future Sight / Mystic Forge let you draw your deck with the right pieces in play.

Some of the tutors also revolve around getting Tidespout into play since that's plan A, and way better than Dramatic Scepter (in my eyes), since it's basically a '1 card combo' and a parity breaker.

I was a doubter of Recurring Insight , but is the card that will get you the most cards for 5 cmc or over, it's much better than I expected (glad I heard the people that recommended it).

About the hate pieces (including Codex Shredder ), I'm taking a staxier approach rather then focus on going fast, since there's no way we're faster than the fastest decks in the format.

jaymc1130 on Urza Proactive Control

3 weeks ago

@ jeacaveo Hey, just finished on my list so I'm here to discuss some choices I see on yours!

First and foremost I want to start with the card that most intrigues me in your iteration: Tidespout Tyrant . There is a part of me that absolutely loves this idea, it performs the same relative function as Crystal Shard and helps the deck generate deterministic lines. I'm just curious about the mana investment and how reliably you are able to find this piece in game. It feels like a card that will certainly decrease opening hand consistency as any opening hand with it will likely have to be shipped, but the upside of it to close out games seems incredible. It's one card that can perform both the roles of Crystal Shard and Cryptic Command at the same time in the same situation and I find it fascinating. I really hope you'll let me know how it performs for you in games over time.

Codex Shredder is a card I considered as this seems like a simple win condition, but there are relevant decks where it can't perform this function (Gitrog Monster for example) and winds up relegated to the same role as Elixir of Immortality with worse functionality in those situations. Ultimately I went with the Elixir as it enables the same win line (via Windfall ) with less downside in certain matchups.

Mystic Forge and Future Sight are interesting ideas to me. I haven't tried them out and they seem awkward, but I'd be really keen to know what kinds of situations these cards offer advantages for you in play testing and what kinds of situations aren't ideal for them.

Storage Matrix is something I've considered, but realistically speaking I just want out the Static Orb + Tangle Wire lock and devoting another card slot to a similar but less effective hate piece felt like a mistake to me. I haven't tested it though, so any updates you have on it's performance would be of interest to me as well.

Arcum's Astrolabe is definitely not a card I would want to run. Functionally it could perform the same role as Chromatic Sphere but is more difficult to cast and cannot be looped with something like Candelabra + Academy Ruins to generate a deterministic infinite mana line. This inclusion seems really sub par compared to other options that might be available and is probably the very first card I would replace in this list.

Neither Null Rod or Cursed Totem are going to be hate pieces I consider for an Urza list, but I think this is more out of personal bias than anything. I feel like they are just too disruptive to Urza's own game plan, too difficult to break parity on, and too easy to remove from the board in situations where you actually would like them to be in play. I hate Abrupt Decay , except when I love it.

Unwinding Clock can get really degenerate, but I only ever found it to have a "win more" function and ultimately I cut it since it only helped me to win harder than I already was winning rather than just help me win. I think there is some version of Urza that can make ideal use of it, but I haven't figured out what it would be yet and most Urza lists, I think, will find this card's performance unsatisfactory.

Dig Through Time and Recurring Insight aren't cards I'm really keen on. I want some serious card advantage for the resource investment and I'm not sure these options reliably offer the degree of advantage needed to compete with the best grinding decks while also being riskier plays due to the resource investment made to play them. I feel like there is some sort of more optimized route to gaining significant card advantage and this is definitely what I'm working on for my list at the moment, but I must admit I haven't found a solution that is truly ideal. It could certainly wind up being cards like these two in the end.

Merchant Scroll is a card I included in my original lists but I found it to simply be too ineffective. It's terrific for searching up a combo piece, but a lot of times there's an Ashiok out and about and I can't tutor any ways and even if I could I could probably get the same reward from a different card that offers additional value in a different situation and would be more flexible. I don't think your list can make use of Spellseeker , however, given it's construction, so this is probably the right card for this list given the parameters.

Memory Jar is something I have to keep an eye on as it's a great way to reload. Let me know how it performs for you as this is a card I intend to test at some point and just haven't gotten around to trying out quite yet.

Nicklaus95 on Urza's Trinkets (cEDH)

4 weeks ago

TypicalTimmy There are plenty of counterspells, and ways to protect your pieces. Generally, the deck moves so quickly that most opponents either don't have enough mana to interact or they are countered and then I combo off.

I plan on adding more wincons as I acquire them such as Walking Ballista and Codex Shredder , Brain Freeze , and maybe a Deadeye Navigator . I dont build lists with cards I don't own though. The idea is to win with infinite mana as fast as possible. It can even be turn one, or two.

czarkingrex My opening hand was Island , Chrome Mox , Frozen AEther , Ancient Tomb , Isochron Scepter , Sol Ring , Counterspell .

It was a four man pod. Opponent 1 Edgar Markov Opponent 2 Narset, Enlightened Master Opponent 3 Rafiq of the Many

I lost the dice roll so I went second. Opponent 1 played a swamp and, Indulgent Aristocrat and passed turn. Start my first turn. I drew into Mystic Remora Played my Island. Played Chrome Mox with Frozen AEther imprinted on it. Tapped my Island to play Mystic Remora Tapped my Chrome Mox to cast my Sol Ring . Passed turn. Oppenent 2 played an Island and, then Sol Ring , didn't pay the 4, I drew a card. Card Drawn was Mana Crypt . Oppenent 2 passed turn. Opponent 3 played a Plains and Sigarda's Aid , didnt pay the 4, I drew a card. Card Drawn was Dramatic Reversal Opponent 3 passed turn. Opponent 1 Draws, and plays a Temple Garden , taps Swamp, and Temple Garden to play Legion Lieutenant . Swings with 2 creatures at Opponent 3. Opponent 1 ends turn. Start my turn 2 Didn't pay the mana for the Mystic Remora , so it was gone now. Drew my card for turn. Memnite Played my land Ancient Tomb Played Mana Crypt Tapped Ancient Tomb , and two Islands to cast Urza, Lord High Artificer Put ** Construct into play. Tap Mana Crypt to play Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal imprinted. Tap Sol Ring to tap Isochron Scepter and untap all nonland permanents. Tap all my artifacts for blue mana, generating 4 Blue Mana. Use 2 Blue Mana to tap Isochron Scepter . Repeat into infinity. Exile my whole library. Play Laboratory Maniac without paying its mana cost. Play Brainstorm without paying it's mana cost. Game won. Turn two. Opponent 2 had an Arcane Denial in hand but couldn't cast it. Only had colorless mana available. Opponent 3 was had no mana, and no response.

ToshiroU on Aminatou Staxshifter (Esper Stax Primer)

1 month ago

Hey SynergyBuild Dango and IAmTheWraith,

I would like to share some thoughts on your decklists with u. I currently brew my own version of Aminatou Stax and there are some card choices I would like to discuss with you.

First of all I wanna thank you for uploading your lists and sharing this with the community! I'm actually quite excited for your answers :-)

Regarding Aminatou, what inspired me to brew Esper Stax are the new cards from War of the Spark. I got that Blood Pod Brew for some time already and consider myself to be experienced with that deck and with stax in general. I can't afford cards like Twister, Duals, Chains of Mephistopheles or Tabernacle, so I brew without these. My playgroup in Germany is still quite competitive, with all the major T1 Decks around. At our table there is actually currently one deck that warps the meta around it and that is Shuffle Hulk, so I wanna focus on the interaction with that type of deck.

I would like to talk about your / my wincondition. I wonder, if Rings of Brighthearth , Basalt Monolith and Goblin Cannon as the main plan are really better than Paradox Engine and Isochron Scepter / Dramatic Reversal ? Especially that Goblin Cannon annoys me...

You'd win with Codex Shredder or Blind Obedience , which both fit in nicely anyway. One could add cards to draw the own deck like Stroke of Genius and play like Scroll Rack + Land Tax or maybe even the new Urza, Lord High Artificer instead of Clock of Omens .

Sure, cards like Rule of Law , Arcane Laboratory or Damping Sphere hinder the scepter-plan, but these won't do anything against Shuffle Hulk anyway. On the other hand, Rings + Basalt also win with Ashiok, Dream Render or Narset, Parter of Veils which u probably wanna play...

I myself am not sure about that question. White-Blue control decks always win slowly and that has honestly been the biggest issue for them in cEDH. Thrasios / Thymna can easily grind out a softlock and win with one tutor into Ad Naus or combo out through a Paradox Engine.

Following up I would like to know your opinion on these cards:

• Teferi, Time Raveler and friends (Narset, Ashiok, Dovin)

• Counterbalance

• Necropotence

• Blind Obedience

• As Foretold

• Copy Artifact

• Miracles in general (considering Terminus and Temporal Mastery )

And last but not least I am interested in your experiences with the discard package ( Liliana of the Veil , Bottomless Pit , Oppression ). When playtesting it felt like these cards create some kind of topdeck-mode for each play on the table. Still, I consider Aminatou not in the strongest position in this kind of situation against other Generals Thrasios / Thymna, Najeela, Zur, or any commander that tutors or creates value... To me it always felt best when I was able to flicker some value outlet (Creature or Planeswalker) to dig for answers or protect my stax piece(s)...

:-) I look forward to your reply! Ah and I'd like to mention a very funcard from playtesting, probably not very competitive but it was very fun to do the moves with Oath of Teferi + Aminatou ;-)