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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 |
Planar Constructed | Legal |
Planechase | Legal |
Premodern | Legal |
Quest Magic | Legal |
Vanguard | Legal |
Vintage | Legal |
Cultural Exchange
Sorcery
Choose any number of creatures target player controls. Choose the same number of creatures another target player controls. Those players exchange control of those creatures. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)
Niko9 on Zinnia fun
3 months ago
I'd say maybe using etb creatures and Ashnod's Altar to sac them, get mana to pay into making tokens, get etbs on tokens. All of the incarnations would work great (though maybe kind of salt inducing) to evoke Fury ping mana dorks, sac to ashnod's, gain mana to gain a token. I don't think Ashnod's Altar will go infinite or anything, but could be a good value engine.
Also, just random cards
Clarion Spirit if you are using etbs and casting creatures will just randomly get you value and spirits
Kabira Takedown Flip because you might have lots of creatures and if not it's just a land
Curiosity effects like, Reconnaissance Mission and Thopter Spy Network and Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar
Also, any token deck loves Cultural Exchange as a finisher : ) Get your etbs and value cheap and then trade a whole bunch of 1/1s for an opponents best board.
And way off topic, but I feel like Zinnia should be a plant or tree folk, because for real : )
YesterdaysGhost on I'm Playing Blue So...
5 months ago
Thanks for stopping by, DreadKhan! You certainly get the spirit of this deck with your very tasty suggestions! I love that Mass Diminish is just a far more painful Polymorphist's Jest that you can enjoy twice in a game! In fact every card you've suggested sounds like the sort of fun I want to have with this deck! I'll keep my eyes out for some of these, in particular Mass Diminish, War Tax and Empress Galina.
I'm a huge fan of the art for Cultural Exchange as well, certainly love the far older art style of the early hears of MtG!
DreadKhan on I'm Playing Blue So...
5 months ago
Pet decks are so much fun to play, just drawing into certain art (even if they're dead cards at the time) can feel pretty sweet. Here are a few of my favorite Blue cards that can also make an opponent's life difficult! War Tax can be really crazy, you can use it during anyone's turn to limit their attacks. Cultural Exchange can let someone else enjoy your Seacoast Drake (it seems mean to hog fun cards like that, right?), it can also generate a lot of advantage. Mass Diminish is a weird card even by the standards of weird cards, the effect last for a REALLY long time in a bigger game, and it inexplicably has Flashback at a low MV. I'm not sure if it needs support to 'work', but not many cards are as annoying to a table as a resolved Counterbalance. She used to be pricey, but Empress Galina is a REALLY weird Blue card to throw in, if people can't answer it they are going to lose their Commanders. Callous Oppressor is pretty good, steal the best thing and then use it to chump the new biggest thing (and then steal that thing with Oppressor). Fatespinner is a nifty Stax piece that can slow your opponent's game plan quite a bit (but it doesn't nothing if they're wildly ahead, so it's still 'fun'). Not sure if you want the removal, but Transmogrifying Wand is a very good effect if it sticks around, but Oxing even 1 creature can be pretty helpful.
Icaruskid on The Friendmaker | Talrand, Sky Summoner [PRIMER]
5 months ago
DreadKhan here are the results:
- I enjoyed Proteus Staff and Sphinx of the Second Sun in my testing. But I do have a mono blue extreme artifact matters deck already so strictly for the variety I'm staying on the Polymorph plan.
- I really _really _like Shark Typhoon as an alternative to Talrand and also because it is hilariously on theme.
- I tried the Cipher spells and I'm still undecided about them. Sometimes I want repeatable spells and sometimes they have no creature to encode and I just want card selection or card advantage.
- You were right about Mass Diminish and Polymorphist's Jest. They are in!
- Cultural Exchange helps round out the threat level in the deck nicely. Added!
Thank you so much for your insightful ideas!
DreadKhan on The Friendmaker | Talrand, Sky Summoner [PRIMER]
5 months ago
I did some fiddling around with my Talrand and Proteus Staff, I found that I preferred it to Polymorph because I could throw a Sphinx of the Second Sun in, and if Proteus Staff hits Sphinx first it's amazing because I get to untap and draw an extra card before I hit my end step, meaning I can likely Staff again to get Jin just in time (and still have mana up for interaction). I guess it boiled down to me trying to raise the ceiling on Jin, and that was the best I could come up with! The other nice thing about an artifact plan is Blue has tons of relevant tutors, and if you clear all of the creatures out of your deck and Proteus Staff away another Drake you get to put your library in whatever order you want... meaning Jin can then draw you the actual 7 cards you want most. It's very, very degenerate when it works, but I was aiming for a budget cEDH list rather than something suitable for casual play.
I'm not sure if you need blockers, but Metallurgic Summonings can generate a bunch of them for you, and Shark Typhoon can generate attackers (or flying blockers if you're desperate), they're handy if your playgroup likes to 'deal with' Talrand, these Enchantments tend to be very sticky, people neglect Enchantment removal in my experience.
If you're aiming for a more casual Talrand, I might have a few ideas for you that are budget to boot! Hands of Binding and Hidden Strings offer two very low to the ground repeatable spells that can generate Drakes if you can Cipher them onto something evasive and get in, Hidden Strings can untap your stuff fwiw, and Hands of Binding can lock down the most problematic thing if you want. Last Thoughts isn't as good IMHO, but repeated card draw tends to be very good if you don't need to input more resources. Stolen Identity can be a solid win con, if what you take has evasion you can keep getting in and getting copies, it can get pretty out of hand, even as a 6 MV spell.
If you like politics and/or combat tricks I might have a few that are worth looking into, Mass Diminish is a true budget gem, the effect lasts long enough to be truly crippling late game, and it has Flashback for no discernable reason, very good at making one opponent dead, and then another opponent dead because their board is tiny. Polymorphist's Jest is much more of a surprise since it's an instant, but the effect can turn an opportunistic attack into a bloodbath (in either direction).
In any deck that's not in the ideal colours for removal I often end up looking hard at Transmogrifying Wand, this can deal with 3 creatures if it sticks around, 2/4s are basically trash vs your 2/2s in the air. Even if all you do is force someone with a low MV Commander to keep recasting to raise the tax it's very little resources to do it.
It's not a nice thing to do to someone, but I've always thought of Talrand as a real man of culture, perhaps you'd want to send some Drakes on a Cultural Exchange?
Best of luck, hope some of these ideas are relevant
DreadKhan on Goose Mother Voltron
11 months ago
Mark of Sakiko or Bear Umbra might do some work, mostly to enable you to play a lot more stuff? Belt of Giant Strength seems synergistic, it stacks with your +1 counters. Crystal Shard is a pretty good way to get your Commander back in hand, but it can also be used to punish any player who dares use all their mana up (some players are really bad at tracking stuff like this, depending on the playgroup). Rogue's Passage is an interesting way to guarantee the survival of your Goose. If you want more mass removal I have had some luck with Mass Manipulation, it's hard to cast but the effect is pretty strong if you steal more than 1 thing.
I'm not sure if your Goose gets big enough or not, but Tempting Licid is a decent Lure effect, and you can technically attach it to an opponent's creature that attacks (and remove it after blockers are declared) to either wipe out blockers (letting you/others get in) or get a creature killed, you can also use it to put a Lure on something you don't care about so The Goose can get in unblocked (you can save the Licid).
When it comes to ramp and fixing, I find 2 colour decks are extremely forgiving, and having one of those colours be Green makes it even easier to build. One of the annoyances of Enemy Pair decks (like Simic) is that their aren't as many dual lands to choose from, but their are still a few budget range dual lands that come with basic land types, these really pop with stuff like Nature's Lore, which can find a non-Basic Forest, enabling you to get your colours quickly and consistently, but IMHO it's really hard to not hit your colours in a Simic deck. It's really annoying that the only 'budget' typed dual I can think of is Breeding Pool, but that's a long way from budget, and you're only in 2 colours.
If you like +1 counters and drawing cards you might enjoy Generous Patron, if you're desperate you can give your own stuff the counters, but if you want cards you can do so (and still have a body). Another card that might be generally useful is Skullwinder, you can use this to generate political leverage, possibly getting to choose what the opponent will actually get back. Cultural Exchange is an obscure card that can very much take over a game if you time it right, ideally you use it after people have already wiped and hopefully don't have another at the ready. Mass Diminish might be better than Frogify, note that it lasts until your next turn and affects all of a player's creature, yet still comes with Flashback to boot. This is very good with something like Tempting Licid. Transmogrifying Wand might not look very good, but being able to remove the 3 most annoying creatures for a grand total of only 6 mana is pretty sweet, it's also a great deterrent piece once it's out and still has counters, people can't play key creatures until it's dealt with or out of counters. Return of the Wildspeaker is a good way to refill your hand, it's among the best of it's kind, but Momentous Fall is better if you're being wiped or something.
DreadKhan on Please help me improve my …
1 year ago
If you like stealing creatures and have access to Blink Thassa, you might like Callous Oppressor. I'd also look at Helm of Possession for the same reasons. TBH I think I'd run Sower of Temptation over Gilded Drake with your Commander (Drake is a great card, but at least if you kill off Sower's creature you can just flicker Sower to get a new creature, at which point you can flicker Sower to steal something else), either way it's also worth a look.
If you're looking for ramp in Blue, I'm a fan of the usually clowned-on Dreamscape Artist, Myriad Landscape and Retraced Image, but I think it's probably a reasonable choice to run stuff like Arcane Signet/Fellwar Stone if you're struggling to get your ramp numbers high enough. A sneaky trick I heard about from The Command Zone (it's a Youtube EDH channel) is that you can use creature lands like Mishra's Factory or Faerie Conclave as a form of Blue ramp if you can copy them when they are creatures, Magic has few issues with cloning/copying lands if they are also creatures. Another unusual form of 'ramp' is to use the odd card like Walking Atlas to cheat extra lands in, but you probably would want a few more lands or card draw.
As one-off theft effects go, I find Bribery, Inevitable Betrayal and Cultural Exchange to all be pretty solid, Exchange does want you to have token generators, but Blue isn't bad at making small tokens. Bribery effects can be a LOT bigger than a theft effect, so Betrayal is deceptively powerful vs the right type of deck, but most decks have a few really strong creatures at least, and you should have multiple opponents to choose from.
It's not a Theft effect, but Rite of Replication is hilarious in practice, getting a single copy for 4 is pretty much market rate, getting 5 copies for 9 is crazy when it happens.
DreadKhan on
1 year ago
I have a Chaos deck, maybe a few of the cards would work here too? I'm a huge fan of Exquisite Blood, even if you play it without the combo, the effect has big synergy with your Commander's ability, and it helps keep you alive when you're ahead. Another enchantment that works with Esquisite Blood (and your Commander) is Rite of the Raging Storm, this is often good for damage and it makes everyone else play way more cautiously (because anyone but you can be stuck taking 15 damage in a cycle if they can't handle the tokens). Rite itself likes a number of other cards that might work here too, one really sneaky one is Mask of Griselbrand, Lifelink is useful (and stacks with Blood), Flying is useful, and the card draw can be very powerful, obviously this is hilarious with Rite since you can equip the token with the Mask, at which point it's probably getting in for damage and when it dies inevitably you can draw 5 cards. It seems like a good piece of gear for your Commander especially. Berserkers' Onslaught is a funny card sometimes, you do need some kind of board, but even your Commander is openly terrifying with Double Strike. Another card that Rite and your Commander both would love is Dauthi Embrace, Shadow is really good evasion (you might look into Dauthi Voidwalker as well, very useful dual purpose card). Scavenged Brawler is a creature I'm testing in that deck atm, it seems good, offering a useful body that can be 'scavenged' when a wipe happens. If your deck doesn't run combos and is in Black Protection Racket can be a source of life loss for your Commander, your average MV is probably high enough to matter, it can also give cards. It will never give you any lands or 0 MV cards, so it's not a perfect card. Make an Example is a generically good card in my experience, you always get (at minimum) each opponent's most problematic creature. Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep and Shizo, Death's Storehouse are two cards that might help your Commander out, and they're untapped lands, very few drawbacks to those!
Cultural Exchange is a Blue Chaos feeling card I love, I can't decide if you've got enough tokens/creatures you don't care about to make it work, but if you can trade off some small stuff for the best stuff on board then you're doing good I think. I guess it doesn't say anything about untapping, so you can use it to open someone up to attack by trading away all their blockers for already tapped creatures in a pinch. Mass Diminish seems worse than stuff like Sudden Spoiling and Polymorphist's Jest (both great cards though!), but the ability to cast it twice is big, and the effect weirdly lasts a turn cycle, this can help eliminate 2 players sometimes.
Since you probably want your Commander out most of the time, have you considered Stubborn Denial? It's not Fierce Guardianship, but I find Guardianship to be obnoxious.
My final ideas are War Tax and War Cadence, Cadence can easily make your stuff unblockable if people are tapped out, Tax can make it very hard for people to attack in draw out games, but Cadence is probably the better fit.
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