Concealed Courtyard

Land

Concealed Courtyard enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands.

{T}: Add {W} or {B}.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

kamarupa on Magnificence

2 months ago

You have a lot of singletons for the Modern format. I suggest you add "Casual" and "Budget" to the Hubs.

You're already at 70 spells. That, combined with the number of singletons, might make this brew better suited for Commander/EDH than Modern. It would also open up even more spells.

Alternatively, if you want to keep it modern, even with a casual and budget focus, you can get more power and consistency out of it by tightening up your focus. A good deck doesn't need to do everything, just a few things well. You seem to have a lot of Vampires, Angels, and Humans. You might try to pick one of those creature types, and focus on that tribe - cut all the other creatures and increase the best of your chosen tribe to a full set, keeping in mind you want most of your creatures to cost 1-3MV.

When it comes to non-creature, non-land spells, I find the most success with the following catagories: removal/disruption, card advantage, protection. I try to include 4-8 removal/disruption spells, 2-4 card advantage spells (draw 2 or more cards from 1 spell), and 1-4 protection spells (deny opponent's removal). Anything that doesn't fall into those 3 categories usually isn't helping a deck succeed. Of course, every deck is different and there are lots of ways of achieving essentially the same results - like Harmonize and Collected Company are different in approach, but essentially both card advantage.

Sign in Blood is about as good as it gets for card advantage. Path to Exile isn't that expensive anymore, but black has so many good removal spells - I won't list them here. Discard can function as removal, so if that's your preference, it's fine, too, but keep in mind removal spells are cheaper to cast to target creatures and don't require as much timing to use effectively. White is great for protection spells - Faith's Shield is great, but Ephemerate can be just as good in decks with lots of ETB triggers.

Artifact/Enchantment removal is usually reserved for the sideboard.

Pump and lifegain are usually peripheral mechanics.

A dual color deck needs dual lands. It looks like you're going for a budget deck here, so I suggest adding more budget dual lands. While it's generally preferred to avoid lands that enter tapped, if you're brewing a budget deck, I think it's better to include such lands than to rely on luck to get the basics you need to cast spells of both colors. Concealed Courtyard would be great. Caves of Koilos would be ok, too, especially with a tribes like Angels or Vampires that have lots of creatures with lifegain mechanics. If resorting to lands that always enter tapped, I think the Scry lands provide the most value - you could do worse than Temple of Silence. I love managathering.com as a land resource - https://managathering.com/duallands/orzhov.html

I recommend 8-12 dual lands, 1-3 utility lands and the rest basics.

I usually include Bojuka Bog in decks that use black mana, as there's so much graveyard recursion in my play group.

To sum it up: if not brewing EDH, reduce to 60 spells. Cut your enchantments, tighten your creatures, focus your utilities. Remember: you don't have to annihilate opponents to win - focus on making a fast, reliable kill, not an elaborate one.

Balaam__ on Tripwire

3 months ago

An easy path to improvement in speed and consistency would be to add some form of dual land. While you don’t currently have this tagged as ‘Budget’, I’m guessing from the overall price estimate and the fact there are no costly cards here that you’d like to keep it as low as possible (which is perfectly understandable).

In lieu of the obvious go-to selections like Marsh Flats and Godless Shrine which can be quite expensive, there are some decent alternatives. Try looking at Concealed Courtyard and Caves of Koilos or even Isolated Chapel and Shineshadow Snarl.

You’ll want to avoid anything that has an ‘this card enters the battlefield tapped’ anchor chained to it as that will only slow you down, but otherwise it’ll only be a strict improvement if you can acquire some inexpensive lands that provide both {W} and {B}.

kamarupa on Tripwire

4 months ago

While I think this deck has a lot of places that can be improved on, one thing you've done well is keep most of your spells to 3 or less mana to cast. Your mana curve looks pretty good - well done!

Now, on to some broad stroke places for possible improvements:

I think you should add "Budget" and "Casual" to your listed hubs.

I'm not sure what your reason for so many singletons is - are you constrained by what you have in paper? Or basing this off a Commander build? I'd strongly recommend reducing your singletons as much as possible by focusing on 3-5 creatures that are your strongest, most synergized. This will improve the deck's consistency and that makes it win faster and more often. It can also help allow for a more effective sideboard. You seem to have the most Vampires, so perhaps going for a Vampire tribal build? If you do go for Vampires, you might consider dropping white altogether. That would make your mana-base a lot cheaper to make consistent and help you cast the spells that require two or more black mana.

I notice you also have 67 spells here. I suggest reducing the deck by 7 to hit the minimum, as this, like narrowing which creatures you include, will drastically improve consistency.

Finally, if you keep the deck b/w, I'd suggest trying to improve your land base by incorporating some dual lands. While it's never great to slow down a deck with lands that enter tapped, it's even worse to not have the right color mana to cast spells. I lean toward the scry lands (Temple of Silence) as being the most valuable trade off for entering tapped, though you might prefer the life gain lands (Scoured Barrens) to fit your lifegain theme. Or conversely, if you gain enough life, a pain land might fit well (Caves of Koilos). If you can swing the money, the path lands are pretty nice (Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip) or fast lands (Concealed Courtyard). I don't like the check lands (Isolated Chapel) or reveal lands (Shineshadow Snarl) because they work best with the always expensive shock lands (Godless Shrine) and I don't have the kind of money.

I hope that helps!

wallisface on

10 months ago

To get your deck to 60 cards, I would recommend Sorin of House Markov  ^Flip. It provides a lot of flexibility in as well as a dangerous threat.

Some other thoughts looking at your current list:

• I know you say you already have a sideboard, but is there a reason it’s not listed here? Sideboards are as-important as the mainboard, so I would’ve thought you’d want feedback on both?

• As has been already mentioned, your landbase is suboptimal. I would suggest not running more than 2-of each kind of basic. A playset of Concealed Courtyard would do wonders here.

• both Kaya's Guile and March of Otherworldly Light feel more like niche sideboard options than valid mainboard tech. Their applications are both niche and matchup dependant, and they are both fairly mana-hungry compared to a lot of other interaction. I’d suggest running stuff like Fatal Push, Thoughtseize, or (if you can assemble the manabase to support them) Prismatic Ending and Leyline Binding.

• I’m really not convinced by Walking Ballista here. Yes it is super-strong with Heliod, but you’re only running 2 of each and Ballista is practically a dead card whenever it’s not comboing off. Furthermore, the play-pattern for the Heliod/Ballista combo is often quite mana intensive (because you need to avoid Ballista sitting on the field long enough to get killed), and your land count is super-low.

Antipickle on Official missing/incorrect card/token thread

11 months ago

Concealed Courtyard is showing up as not legal for standard.

BotaNickill on 0Rack

1 year ago

Heya Ender. I've always had a special place in my heart for a good Rack Deck. Used to play them back in the day with Hymn to Tourach and Mind Twist. I like the concept of having the Hand disruption and making people suffer for it, lol. I also have a black modern deck that features discard and control with a lot of the same elements as you have here. i.e. Dauthi Voidwalker. I have been thinking lately that I should change it up and your deck has inspired me a bit. I'll toy around with some ideas. I have a few thought. Card draw is always an essential part of the game, so I'd add some Silent Clearings and remove the Concealed Courtyards if I could. Also, Liliana of the Veil, was and still is a bad beatch. I like the sideboard lockdown options along with Karn, that seems like a pretty solid plan. 4 Solitude seems like a bit much, you don't have a whole lot of white cards to exile here to make it free, and you also have the march which sometimes also requires a white card in hand, so maybe lean into some other form of control here, like Anguished Unmaking, Vindicate, Damn, Sheoldred's Edict. 4 Ephemerate seems awkward here too, I'm guessing that is for protecting your creatures from removal? Not sure how necessary that is, but Anyway, just some thoughts. Like I said, I like the build and I'm interested to hear how it works for you! Good Luck!

Lankhmar on For Honor and Glory!!!

2 years ago

Oh (bleep) you're right! LMAO. Like I said, I've been playing since Revised and have a LOT of decks. Always had a penchant for tribal knights (even though there have been/are better tribes for sure through the years). My Modern version does, in fact, run Giver of Runes. The Kor designation doesn't allow me to Cavern of Souls her in but I do run plenty of white sources. I'm sorry bud. 100% my bad. Sorry about that. I need to NOT drink my scotch and give advice. I just get soooooo excited when I see a solid knight tribal build I lose control.

I WILL post my ACTUAL MODERN legal version in the next few days. Giver of Runes is my only non-human or non knight creature in that deck. I run everything else human and/or knight in that deck-most are both. I announce my first Cavern of Souls as "knight" which prevents counter magic on all but the Giver of Runes and Noble Hierarch. Those both being (ideally) early drops-counter magic doesn't normally come into play.

My current, most regularly played, Modern deck is not knights (although I do play it still for a change of pace once in awhile but it's not my number one deck-hence my leading you astray). My current regular MODERN deck is as follows:

Deck: Greif Blade

Main: 4 Ephemerate 1 Poet's Quill 1 Batterskull 4 Giver of Runes 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 2 Plains 3 Godless Shrine 3 Concealed Courtyard 3 Skyclave Apparition 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire 3 Tidehollow Sculler 2 Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip 2 Charming Prince 1 Kaldra Compleat 1 Silent Clearing 1 Shriekmaw 4 Grief 3 Feign Death 4 Marsh Flats 1 Lion Sash 1 Flooded Strand 3 Touch the Spirit Realm 1 Swamp 1 Castle Locthwain 2 Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip 2 Solitude 4 Stoneforge Mystic 1 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard: 2 Leyline of Sanctity 1 Shadowspear 2 Damn 1 Sword of Sinew and Steel 2 Damping Sphere 2 Sanctum Prelate 2 Kaya's Guile 2 Dauthi Voidwalker 1 Reduce to Memory

This is the list I run most frequently so it's the one I know best and have readily available to share. This is NOT a net-deck AFAIK. If there is an identical or similar list floating around in Cyberspace it's purely coincidental. This list was home brewed and is one of my favorites I've ever made through the years.

magicbike on Isshin, Two Heavens as One

3 years ago

i took out The Shattered States Era  ^Flip--instead of Orzhov Basilica Akoum Refuge for Concealed Courtyard Bloodfell Caves for Inspiring Vantage Roadside Reliquary for Searstep Pathway  ^Flip Mountain for Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip