Crypt Incursion

Instant

Exile all creature cards from target player's graveyard. You gain 3 life for each card exiled this way.

Discussion (49)

rubeerubin on Competitive Modern Mill

1 week ago

:shrug: just play tested for about a week with it. Much higher win rate. (5% higher vs. the current meta/top 8 decks in modern). Did make a couple other small changes (but perhaps they are "big changes" since they all play nicely with Mission Briefing :

added: 1x Surgical Extraction , 3x Mission Briefing , switched one island to Steam Vents (to allow the flexibility of casting the other side of Breaking ), took out 3x Breaking , one Shelldock Isle (since Mission Briefing smooths out mana as well). In almost every game where Mission Briefing came up, it was a rock star, possibly the MVP of the deck. Added another Crypt Incursion to sideboard (red deck wins is very heavy in the meta right now).

Believe it or not, the main deck Surgical Extraction was also very important. It helps win game 1 against Whirza (the other major component of the meta right now). It isn't even close. Take away Thopter Foundry and you've bought yourself many more turns. Take away Urza and they have nothing left.

In the middle of testing removing some number of Mind Funeral and/or Fraying Sanity for Trapmaker's Snare , possibly another Surgical Extraction or Murderous Cut (every deck in the current top 8 of the meta runs at least 6 creatures). Reducing the mana curve is also a big bonus.

I think the major thing you're missing in your analysis is that 2/3 games are post-sideboard. Having 7x (or more) copies of your "silver bullet/s" is huge, along with better selection for those silver bullets as well (either putting them directly in the bin if you have a Mesmeric Orb out, or bubbling them up if you don't). Having the ability to double Surgical Extraction is one of the most common plays post-sideboard and it just straight up wins against a pretty large percentage of the meta currently.

Blue_Flame on Pauper: Orzhov Knights

2 weeks ago

I think Irregular Cohort is better than Sunspire Gatekeepers in a deck like this, as you don't need to run Orzhov Guildgate any more to produce the 2/2 it creates. You could probably just run a mix of Scoured Barrens and Orzhov Basilica to replace them.

Also, you kind of need a sideboard, so I'll provide some suggestions for that:

Castigate and Duress : useful for Tron, combo decks, any deck in which you need to tear a card out of your opponent's hand

Crypt Incursion / Relic of Progenitus : Graveyard hate.

Disenchant / Fragmentize : Artifacts. Enchantments.

Kjartan on Liliana's incursion

3 weeks ago

The first obvious fix to this would be to fill out your playset of Ghoulcaller's Chant before you start adding Disentomb s. But ultimately, I don't think you should play too many of those effects, as they are not super consistent in a deck that doesn't self-mill, and they are just dead cards until you even have a creature in the yard.

Now, some changes that could be made to improve the deck overall would be to remove the cards that don't do anything but gain life. Gaining life is one of the weakest mechanics in magic and you need to be given absurdly hight amounts of it before it's worth it on its own. Cards that do other things than gain life, like Gifted Aetherborn can be amazing, but Crypt Incursion and Staff of the Death Magus are pretty awful.

I would also cut some of the clunkier 4-drops to ensure you don't get out-tempoed by faster decks.

Some relatively cheap suggestions to replace them with:

Dark Salvation , Diregraf Colossus , Disfigure , Cemetery Reaper , Inquisition of Kozilek .

Peisistratos on Competitive Modern Mill

1 month ago

wallisface It surely isn't my intention to be rude or hurt someone's feelings.

"The problem with the second copy is that you'll be casting that on turn 4 (after using all of T3 to cast the first), at a time which is already a precarious position for mill - you either want to be winning on turn 4, or else preventing your opponent from being able to close out the game - being able to accomplish either of those usually puts mill in a very strong spot." This is exactly (or nearly so, actually) what I am trying to say along the wholeness of my article. That's what fogs are meant for: allowing you to unfold your bad development in that game (e.g. we are not winning on turn 4, but merely casting another Fraying Sanity ) by giving you an high probability of gaining another turn after that one. Against combo the games develops in an utterly different way, against control we have no issue at reaching later turns of the games and against grindy decks you win mostly by means of redundancy, not by cute defence cards like Fatal Push or Crypt Incursion (even if we often swap them in for Darkness with in all honestly a similar result).

I felt free to adapt part of your comment to implement my Fraying Sanity entry. Thanks a lot for that.

Peisistratos on Competitive Modern Mill

1 month ago

hungry000 have you tried reading some lines of this page at all? Casting a 3 mana Darkness is worthless under any circumstances (see the entries about Darkness , Crypt Incursion and Snapcaster Mage ). As for an analysis of Mission Briefing itself, there is an apposite entry.

Peisistratos on Competitive Modern Mill

1 month ago

zga Mesmeric Orb is certainly your worst card in fast games like the ones against Neobrand or Burn, but when you wouldn't want it either you're bringing it Crypt Incursion or Set Adrift , all of which get much better with the otherwise poor Mesmeric Orb - so much that I almost never get to cut it.

Peisistratos on Competitive Modern Mill

1 month ago

zga sure! I'm currently on the following guidelines. However, be aware of your opponent game biases (aggressive, controlling..). This is more relevant to sideborading than you might think.

Burn: -4 Fraying Sanity -4 Darkness +3 Crypt Incursion +4 Fatal Push +1 Set Adrift . But really, side as you want. You can't win even sideboarding 15 dedicated cards. I tested the matchup extensively with any possible combination of cards.

Infect: -4 Fraying Sanity -4 Breaking +4 Fatal Push +4 Set Adrift . Still the matchup is desperate, don't hope to win even a single game.

Hatebears, Humans, Spirits: -4 Fraying Sanity -4 Darkness +3 Crypt Incursion +4 Fatal Push +1 Set Adrift . Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Unsettled Mariner are Public Enemies Number One. We can usually play around the rest, nonetheless those matchups are really really hard.

Jund: -4 Darkness -1 Field of Ruin +4 Fatal Push +1 Crypt Incursion . The matchup is hard, there is no question their cards are better than ours. After thoroughly testing it, I can surmise their only ways of winning quite always involve an early unanswered Tarmogoyf , a rain of discard spells followed by a Tarmogoyf , or that same stream of discard spells followed by us flooding out. Crypt Incursion seems strong at a first glance, but we are usually forced to cast it too early because of the pressure imposed by Liliana of the Veil or Scavenging Ooze . What's left of their deck is often quite irrelevant (feel free to swear at me, Jund players of the world: it's the truth, against Mill your other cards are too much situational).

Death's Shadow: no changes. The matchup surely is difficult, but not one that we cannot emerge victorious from.

Eldrazi Tron: -4 Darkness +3 Crypt Incursion +1 Set Adrift . The matchup is quite even. If we manage to stem a chancely aggressive start, we should race Karn, the Great Creator .

Hardened Scales: -3 Fraying Sanity -4 Visions of Beyond +3 Crypt Incursion +4 Fatal Push . Just time your Darkness correctly and win on top of it as the plan wisely prescribes. The matchup is probably played on equal terms as for winning odds.

Dredge: -4 Breaking -3 Fraying Sanity +3 Crypt Incursion +4 Surgical Extraction . We cannot win game 1 because of Creeping Chill . If you manage to insulate yourself from it, game 2-3 become fairly easy. Just wait for them to mill themselves or lose time while you set youself up.

Storm: -4 Fraying Sanity +4 Surgical Extraction . You cannot win game 1, but game 2-3 if you manage to extract Past in Flames with the aim of fogging Empty the Warrens the game becomes pretty straightforward.

Urza: -4 Fraying Sanity -4 Darkness +4 Surgical Extraction +4 Set Adrift . Game 1 revolves around them playing Urza, Lord High Artificer in time, game 2-3 are pretty easy for us. Set Adrift is not really needed, but so are so many card advantage sources: we play it just in case we can sneak it in to delay them mostly out of sadicity.

Control: -4 Darkness +4 Surgical Extraction . Just get rid of their counterspell or Snapcaster Mage 's targets. If they are going nuts with too many copies of Teferi, Time Raveler , Narset, Parter of Veils or Gideon of the Trials , add some copies of Set Adrift for Mind Funeral s in quantity depending on their mix of those spells. Narset, Parter of Veils nerfs down Visions of Beyond , Teferi, Time Raveler completely neuters Shelldock Isle and Gideon of the Trials wins by itself making ourselves uncapable of winning. Just ignore anything else. The matchup goes to unlosable to unwinnable depending on their list.

Tron: -4 Darkness +4 Surgical Extraction . Game 1 is pretty easy for us, and post board they can hardly win any game.

Valakut: -4 Darkness +4 Set Adrift just for show. They really cannot beat us.

Amulet: -4 Darkness +4 Set Adrift . They usually cannot assemble the whole combo (haste+double attack) because we're milling them, so we just need to get rid of Leyline of Sanctity in game 2-3 and win before they do.

Xica on Dimir mill help

1 month ago

Crypt Incursion is your best friend, as it deals it basically resets the clock for most decks that attempt to race you.

Your best card is Archive Trap , its eqivalent of a burn spell that deals 5 damage. Its so good that it would be a good idea to run a full playset of Field of Ruin to enable it (its search is not a "may" ability).

And of course its worth to run stuff that allows you to flash bsck key cards, be it Snapcaster Mage , Mission Briefing or whatdver elsd you like.
Not to mention tutor effects, Trapmaker's Snare , or Scheming Symmetry - the latter being particularly brutal when followed up by mill (you need to cast it during your upkeep before you draw that turn), as it will mill the card your opponent would get.