Crystalline Giant

Artifact Creature — Giant

At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose a kind of counter at random that this creatures doesn't have from among flying, first strike, deathtouch, hexproof, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, vigilance, and +1/+1. Put a counter of that kind on this.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (22)

Epicurus on Ramos the Mutated Lord

3 months ago

+1 just because I love Mutate! Hahaha, don't even know if this deck is good or not, but it definitely could be, and looks fun as hell either way.

I can make some suggestions, but take them with a grain of salt. I really believe that I would have to actually play the deck to determine what it needs, what it doesn't need, and what might be helpful to add or cut in order to improve it.

First, here's a list of cards that are generally good for a Ramos deck:

Shielding Plax - gives Ramos Hexproof, puts two +1/+1 counters on him, and draws a card.

Maelstrom Nexus - Puts five counters on Ramos with one spell, grants free casting.

Corpsejack Menace - Speeds up access to Ramos's mana ability.

Zacama, Primal Calamity - Castable using Ramos's ability, and in my experience one of the best things to do so with.

Horned Kavu - Two colors for feeding Ramos, allows you to recast something, and has the added bonus in this deck of possibly allowing you to re-mutate stuff.

Next, I think that you need more early ramp. Here are some suggestions for that, starting with the most obvious choices:

Cultivate

Birds of Paradise

Noble Hierarch

Ilysian Caryatid

Fellwar Stone

To help facilitate some of these inclusions, here are some suggested cuts:

Thrun, the Last Troll - You have enough targets to Mutate without this, and removing him lowers your mana curve.

Lore Drakkis - Yeah, I know, that would make one less Mutate trigger, but it really doesn't do much of anything else for you. You don't have many instants and/or sorceries.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin - I understand why you may want him (he generates blockers, and you are vulnerable to go-wide strategies), but I think he's just unnecessarily raising your curve. By the time you can cast him, you'll probably have a lot of other spells you'd rather cast with that mana. If your meta dictates that you require defense against go-wide, there are better choices. Crawlspace, Lightmine Field, Silent Arbiter/Dueling Grounds.

Fertilid - Absolutely a waste of mana. There are a million things you're better off with than this.

Geist of Saint Traft - I'm actually torn on this one, but I really believe that it falls into the same category as Thrun. You'll likely have other good targets for mutation, though the Flying and Hexproof combination is a good one. I'd still consider your mana curve when deciding whether to keep it.

The Ozolith - Other than Ramos and Crystalline Giant, I really don't see how this is incredibly useful. It's genuinely a good card, but I don't see enough here to justify its inclusion.

Zendikar Resurgent - Too high of a cost. By the time you can cast it, this deck shouldn't need it. If you want to keep the draw effect, you're better off with Chulane, Teller of Tales.

Windgrace's Judgment - Pure jank. I take it your meta is mostly multiplayer? Even so, you'd probably benefit much more from some kind of cheaper, targeted removal. However, if you're so inclined, Decimate for one less mana, or Ruinous Ultimatum for a much more beneficial effect.

Finally, your land base could use an upgrade. That's probably obvious, and likely due to budget restrictions. I get it, land can be what makes a deck expensive to build, and casual decks sometimes aren't worth the money. However, you have a lot of lands on your list that ETB tapped, and that is disconcerting. Pain lands and check lands are the cheapest way to remedy this problem (albeit, the check lands are way more effective if you have shock lands and/or triomes, and furthermore aren't exactly inexpensive either).

I hope I didn't explode your brain, hahaha. If anything, take all of this as proof that I really want this deck to be awesome!

Cheers!

DreadKhan on The Fourth Horseman Pestilence Deck

8 months ago

Have you considered Fatal Blow to kill big creatures at instant speed? I'm not sure if it's better or worse than the sorcery speed Mire, which can be played earlier with extra mana. I also wonder if Dark Ritual isn't worth a look, it's budget but it can offer some impressive speed, or can let you pump extra mana into Pestilence. Not sure if it'd be worthwhile, but Crypt Rats exist. Being a creature makes them easy to interact with, both for you and your opponent.

A thing I saw on a Jumbo Commander video, you can put a Lifelink Counter onto Pestilence and it'll still work, which is objectively hilarious. Nesting Grounds is an easy way to do it. Boot Nipper, Grimdancer, and Crystalline Giant are potential sources, as is Splendor Mare or Unexpected Fangs. Now that I think of it, giving Pestilence a Deathtouch Counter would also be objectively funny, since your Pro Black stuff isn't damaged, everything else dies from B pretty much, and if you've got extra lifelink, being able to put a Lifelink counter on your attacker sounds pretty solid too if you can't get a Nesting Grounds out.

It can potentially blow up in your face, but Phyrexian Totem can be a nice dual purpose card, 2B to turn your 3 mana rock into a 5/5 Trample is pretty good, and it also ramps you. It can help close out games faster if you're behind, provided Pestilence got you close enough to a win. Your deck has a high average MV in my opinion, so some ramp might not hurt, provided the ramp can do more than just ramp. The only drawback of using Totem is that you can't as easily use Pestilence once it's a body, but I'm not sure that's a huge issue.

Just a thought, but is 3 Pestilence enough? You seem pretty dependent on getting it out, not sure how well your deck works if you can't, or it's removed somehow.

Really like this deck, looks like lots of fun! I wonder if a higher budget version could be built that works with Brash Taunter and benefits from access to Pyrohemia, for use in 1v1 competitive play, Rakdos has some acceleration at least.

keizerbuns on Modern Giants

1 year ago

zapyourtumor haha that's cause it was based off my standard version of this deck, Giant Trouble in Little Standard. I made this into a modern deck just cause I really liked the combo of Hamletback Goliath and Surtland Flinger .

I didn't want to add too many non-creature spells or else I totally would've added a few more burn spells like Lightning Bolt in here. I have thought about cutting out green but I also like how well Beanstalk Giant combos with Surtland Flinger. Plus it enables me to get Hamletback Goliath out on turn 4 by playing Invasion of the Giants turn 2, Beanstalk Giant turn 3, then my big boi turn 4, which is always fun.

I really like Ancient Grudge as a replacement to Sunder Shaman so I'm definitely gonna do that! And I agree that Vanquisher's Banner could be cut, but it's tons of fun when I do get it out and I'm mostly just playing this deck casually, not so much competitively.

Also, I do really like Stinkdrinker Daredevil , however it would end up dying to my own Battle of Frost and Fire so I'm not so sure I would want it in there. Crush Underfoot isn't too bad, but Squash is just a bit more consistent in damage and it combos well with the last ability of Battle of Frost and Fire .

I never noticed Inferno Titan and Frost Titan when I made this deck so they might both be worth looking into! I did have Crystalline Giant in this deck originally but I took it out cause it felt too inconsistent and I needed room for Surtland Flinger and Hamletback Goliath haha. Thundercloud Shaman is also definitely worth playtesting in place of Battle of Frost and Fire so I'll have to try that out too.

Thanks for all of your suggestions, they were really well thought out and very helpful! :D

zapyourtumor on Modern Giants

1 year ago

This looks a lot more like a standard deck than a modern one. I'd probably either switch to standard/pioneer or add some modern upgrades (for example a playset of Lightning Bolt ).

Also, I'd suggest cutting green for only two colors, since trying to make a smooth 3 color manabase on a budget is miserable and probably impossible. I don't think Beanstalk Giant is good enough to merit this pain. For the sideboard, you also don't need green for Sunder Shaman . Even though its a nice giant card for your artifact destruction, it costs four mana and doesn't even have an immediate board impact so it won't destroy anything until turn 5. Against most artifact decks you would much rather have Ancient Grudge .

Vanquisher's Banner is only a singleton, costs ten bucks, and is an especially slow card even in an already slow deck; I'd definitely cut this.

To help accelerate into your slow giants, I'd run 4x Stinkdrinker Daredevil . Crush Underfoot doesn't seem too good to be honest, since it doesn't really stall the early game when you most need removal, but it might work okay.

Inferno Titan and Frost Titan are both great giant cards, especially the first one. Crystalline Giant is a nice cheaper 3 drop giant, since you probably want to lower your mana curve a bit. Thundercloud Shaman is a nice wipe.

Happy brewing :]

NinjaBunny01 on Kathril, Aspect of Nightmares

1 year ago

Thanks for the suggestions! I like the Valentin, Dean of the Vein  ^Flip and was thinking of adding it in before you suggested it, but it may be a swap in for Fiend Artisan as it isn't working as intended. Tortured Existence is awesome and will work its way in. Still deciding on if Crystalline Giant is worth having in the deck, so I may make that change or something similar.

BlackoutX on Kathril, Aspect of Nightmares

1 year ago

Stitcher's Supplier instead of Crystalline Giant , It's cheaper to play and doesn't care about being removed, chances are you will dump something with a keyword immediately making it better.

Valentin, Dean of the Vein  ^Flip instead of Nullpriest of Oblivion , cheaper to play with the same keywords while also stopping creatures from staying in the graveyard and potentially making your blockers. You may even play the flip side in this deck so that's added value.

Gurmag Swiftwing is worth considering since you don't have many first strikers.

Tortured Existence is amazing in this deck especially if you decide to run cards with cycling like Pale Recluse or Archfiend of Ifnir

Unearth is just good

Bkotz on

1 year ago

Iv been using Liliana, Death Mage to bring back Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider to my hand when it gets destroyed.

I mainly play bo1 so a sideboard isn’t used other then for situational instances.

Crystalline Giant is a chump blocker and a possible answer to flying creatures.

I’m playing this on arena so I currently only own 1 copy of Fae of Wishes

Sorin_Markov_1947 on

1 year ago

Rule of thumb: 1-2 ofs shouldn't be most of your deck. Have core cards and play lots of them. You want your deck as consistent as possible. Even if that means playing 3 Garruks and occasionally having one stuck in your hand.

Liliana, Death Mage is just terrible.

If you have a wishboard, Fae of Wishes needs to be a four-of. It's not worth losing an entire sideboard for one card in a sixty card deck, unless it's bo1 and you don't use your sideboard anyway.

What's Crystalline Giant 's purpose in the deck?

Poison the Cup is subpar removal. Heartless Act , Bloodchief's Thirst , Soul Shatter , and (situationally) Eliminate are all better.

It's not worth having the versatility of the white cards if you can't cast them without The World Tree . Especially because most of them require double pips, so just a Replicating Ring doesn't cut it, and you want to be casting them before you have 6 lands (or 7 for the Orrery). Doomskar is overrated anyway, use Extinction Event or Blood on the Snow as a sweeper that's in your colors.

4th Cultivate > Migration Path .