Cunning Nightbonder

Creature — Human Rogue

Flash

Spells with flash you cast cost less to cast and can't be countered.

Discussion (17)

lagotripha on Flashy sparkly dumpster fire

1 month ago

Hi, I love making budget brews for FNM magic. Several pieces of advice -

Playing almost monocolour works wonders - Reliability wins matches, a lot of expensive cards are expensive because they let you have that reliability while doing more explosive stuff. Small things like Mystic Snake being easier to cast than frilled adds up. Here, I'd look at playing almost entirely blue cards for the first 3 turns and reserving double green costs for cards you don't mind delaying a 3-4 turns, and adjusting mana accordingly.

Second, old spells are powerful, new creatures are powerful. If you find two that work well together, you usually have something good enough to win FNM. Cunning Nightbonder or Coralhelm Chronicler didn't make a splash in standard, but you find a strong synergy in older cards and you are off to the races. Flickering your mystic snake is cool - and new interactions appear with every card printed.

For 'draw go' I'd look at what cards from tournament decks that rotated are cheap and match that style and browse.

Dumb cheese like midnight clock/Ominous seas looks a lot less dumb once you include old cards - proliferate effects, better counterspells, more 'discard and draw a new hand' effects, more 'when you draw' effects. I'd probably dig into black and run a bunch of duress effects alongside Dark Deal to make it work, but thats personal preference. Throne of Geth could work too, as you already have an artifact in clock. If you want a green/blue shell that it couls slot right into, look at turbofog (which should have a good matchups rn).

Finally Sideboard aggressively and include slots in the mainboard for sideboard cards. Make a list of the kind of decks that are popular, and put answers mainboard, then more answers sideboard. If you don't expect to see a matchup, dont't bother including cards to win it. Mainboarding Reality Shift is a great choice in a meta running lumimancer. Just look at what is cheap in sideboards for tournament decks if you are stuck for ideas - even in other formats. Tormod's Crypt sill still work if you don't have relic.

Finally, and most importantly, fun. Look at the parts of magic you enjoy the most. For a draw-go style, its all about interacting with your opponent - seeing if you can stick a Mizzium Meddler or Notion Thief . Look for cards that do that and set you up to do that, and go have fun. Don't be scared to put them in as a 1-of if they only sort of work. You can iron out kinks in testing, but if the heart of the deck isn't fun for you, it'll be far more tricky to add that back in.

king-saproling on Pokemon EDH

1 month ago

4/30/2021 Update - completed Cunning Nightbonder (Wobbuffet) and Spark Double (Plusle & Minun).

Wobbuffet was actually more challenging to do than it looks because the magic card was SO SLICK. Seems like Ikoria cards are a little smoother/glossier than other printings, or at least this card is. The paint kept slipping and it was hard to get smooth lines due to the slippery surface of the card.

Plusle & Minun were rehashed a lot as well. Originally I outlined Minun in blue and Plusle in red, but it just looked so weird in a bad way. Plusle wasn't differentiating from the background enough and they both looked sloppy so I just outlined them in the typical black.

Going forward I'm attempting to finish at least 3 alters a week. I hope to play the fully-altered deck once the pandemic is over, and if I don't keep pace it'll take me all year to finish this thing (#o) even though these alters are simple they actually take me a good amount of time to complete.

TheVectornaut on Blue/Black Beginner Deck

2 months ago

I think this deck is really well-positioned to become a "draw-go" style control deck that plays instants and flash creatures on others' turns. Pteramander , Augur of Bolas , Brineborn Cutthroat , Threnody Singer , Vodalian Arcanist , Naiad of Hidden Coves , Wavebreak Hippocamp , Murmuring Mystic , and all of your instants (save for the likely too slow 4 mana ones) already fit in such an archetype to at least some extent. The horse fish is particularly insane as a card draw engine, and I'd try to get a playset of it if you can. Stacking them to draw even more cards with Nymris, Oona's Trickster , Baral, Chief of Compliance , Slitherwisp , etc. would also make Ominous Seas more viable, possibly even supplemented by draw payoffs like Chasm Skulker and Nadir Kraken .

Some other options that care about flash might be Cunning Nightbonder , Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir , Leyline of Anticipation , Torrential Gearhulk , and Mystical Teachings .

For more generally good instants, Counterspell , Mana Leak , Countersquall , Frantic Search , AEtherize , Vapor Snag , Rewind , Cryptic Command , Opt , and Brainstorm (if you're playing with the legacy banned list) are options of varying budgets and power levels for a control deck.

The first cards I'd cut would be anything with suspend or that applies keyword ability counters. I think some amount of counter manipulation would be needed to maximize the value from such cards (with Clockspinning , Jhoira's Timebug , Paradox Haze , and Nikara, Lair Scavenger being a few things that come to mind). Then, I'd cull any sorceries or creatures that would take up all your mana on your own turn for minimal impact. Dead Revels , Frost Lynx , Alirios, Enraptured , and so on.

Sorry it took me a while to submit this after seeing the deck get posted earlier this week. Let me know if you have any questions and good luck with your build!

Murphy77 on Rogues Rising the Ranks

7 months ago

Looking at your major strength - Nighthawk Scavenger, Soaring Thought-Thief and Thieves' Guild Enforcer all become very much stronger when your opponent has 8 or more cards in their grave. This says to me that you need a few Maddening Cacophony in your deck to get to this position. While Cunning Nightbonder was useful in rogue decks of the last game format, it actually does nothing for your main creatures. Slitherwisp, on the other hand can flash in, give you some card draw and allow you to gain life.

My 3 first-choice instants for a Dimir deck would be Drown in the Loch, Grasp of Darkness and Keep Safe. My personal favourites to back up this core would be Mind Carver and Unexpected Fangs - which brings you to a total of 9 different cards that make a solid deck with 4 of each (36 non-lands) and 24 lands.

jvitag on Dimir Flash Rogues

9 months ago

eEsnowalkerEe with a monsoon of respect, because I am working on my own Flash/Rogue deck at the moment (was looking around to get ideas on tuning my deck when I found yours), if you have to mull to get a certain combination of cards to win (or have a good time) then the deck needs to be tuned. Unless you have a deck like Jeskai Fires where you NEEDED to have 1 specific card in your hand and you can mull to 1 to get it, or unless you have a mad draw engine, then mulling to get a good hand doesn't, in my experience work. When you mull, in most cases you are starting the game at a disadvantage, one that even an ideal draw has difficulty bailing you out of. This deck does draw pretty well as long as you can keep Slitherwisp on the table, but I still think mulling to an ideal draw isn't great. The trouble I have been having with my own Flash/Rogue deck post-Zendikar drop is the speed aspect. I am finding that I have too many bombs and my list is too diversified and I am trying to fit in too many cards that I like because I like them rather than for their impact on the game. I wonder if some of that is going on here. I think Slitherwisp is one of those McGuffin cards that looks like it should be tearing shit up like a madman, and you have some counter to try and keep hold of it, but in my experience when you drop a wisp on the board your opponent goes balls to the wall to remove it and unfortunately, there is much more creature removal (and more creative ways to remove creatures) then there is removal of any other type. I want Slitherwisp to be badass too, I love the card art and the ability, but I don't try to build decks around it anymore. Cunning Nightbonder might also be a problem for you here. It makes your Flash cards uncounterable, but I think a smart strategy of playing around counters or making your opponent counter stuff you want them to counter is better and it frees up space for say, Soaring Thought-Thief which will help you get cards into your opponent's graveyard to make Drown in the Loch better. Drown is great because it works like a counter or as spot removal if you need it, but in order to be useful your opponent's graveyard needs to be full. Massacre Wurm is another bomb in your deck that is an AWESOME card. I drew a double-rare pack with a full art Wurm and a regular Wurm in it and I have been fooling around with some Gyruda, Doom of Depths/Massacre Wurm nonsense in another deck. The problem with Wurm in your deck, is without any kind of ramp at best, you can't cast it until turn 6, and in most cases not until much later and by that time your opponent might be overrunning you. Your average converted mana cost is 2.73, which means you could probably trim a land for something else. I'd also look into dropping Shark Typhoon. I have found cards like Jwari Disruption and Glasspool Mimic can help with a crucial ability in a crucial moment, or throw you an extra land when you are getting screwed. Blackbloom Rogue synergizes well with the mill/rogue strategy also while also giving you a possible land in a moment of need. I have been including a limited number of these double-faced half land, half something else cards in place of regular lands in my lists to squeeze in some extra flexibility. Mind Carver is another card that works well with the mill strategy. I'll be throwing up my own Flash/Rogue list here shortly when I am finally happy with it. I went Grixis and splashed Red for Embercleave, Valakut Awakening, Goblin Tunneler, Spikefield Hazard, and Zareth San, the Trickster.

abby315 on ZNR: Tempo Rogues

9 months ago

Since it doesn't have flash or haste, I get the sense Nighthawk Scavenger isn't going to be that impressive. Maybe some number of Slitherwisp for more card advantage and flexibility and Cunning Nightbonder for cheaper spells (and it's also a rogue)?

Titus7007 on Blue black flash mutate

10 months ago

What about Ashiok's Erasure? With Cunning Nightbonder down, it can be quite a bargain.

Barbarian_Sun_Pope on

10 months ago

Nice, I like the bit more counter/control heavy route you've taken here. Have you considered Cunning Nightbonder as a sideboard option for control or to potentially conserve mana to pump Wildborn Preserver? Also Mission Briefing might be a better alternative to Flood of Recollection since it is at instant speed. Hope this helps.