Curious Obsession
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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

Curious Obsession

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card."

At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't attack with a creature this turn, sacrifice Curious Obsession.

eliakimras on Menacing Aura

3 weeks ago

Hello! May I step in to give you some recommendations? Since you're on a budget, all cards suggested are 2 dollars or less.

Part 1: Ramp

In: You probably want aura ramp and cost reducers over standard land ramp: Wild Growth, Transcendent Envoy, Hero of Iroas, Jukai Naturalist and Stenn, Paranoid Partisan (choosing Enchantment). These will allow you to storm through your deck casting Auras ad nauseam.

Out: Elvish Mystic, Farhaven Elf, Arcane Signet, Nature's Lore and Cultivate are all great ramp cards, but you can do better (and more thematically) with the cards I mentioned above.

Part 2: Card draw

Just as important as ramp is card draw: Galea won't always be available to you.

In: Sage's Reverie, Enchantress's Presence, Satyr Enchanter, Mesa Enchantress.

Out: Coiling Oracle, Curious Obsession (unreliable), Curse of Verbosity (unreliable), Eel Umbra.

Part 3: Removal

Swords to Plowshares is GREAT, no doubt. But, in this kind of deck, you can spice it up with the great Auras that has for removal.

The objective is, then, to use the cheapest Auras that can hit more than one permanent type, with emphasis on "loses its abilities" in the text box.

In: Mortal Obstinacy, Ossification (synergy with your basic land fetchers).

Out: Reclamation Sage, Swords to Plowshares.

Part 4: Boardwipes

In: I believe you should run more boardwipes that leave your board mostly untouched. Austere Command is one such example. You almost always will clean all artifacts and the half of creatures that are more dangerous to you. Curse of the Swine is another selective wipe.

Out: Time Wipe (not one-sided), Plains.

Part 5: Protection and Evasion

In Voltron, tempo is crucial.

Now to the Auras:

Following the same logic as with removal, I'm using auras over instants to protect the Voltron.

Part 6: Tutors

Without Hammer of Nazahn, Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith is just a more expensive Open the Armory.

In: Open the Armory, Heliod's Pilgrim, Moon-Blessed Cleric, Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice and Invasion of Theros  Flip (bonus that all those tutors also change your library's top card).

Out: Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith, Celestial Archon, Heliod's Emissary, Hypnotic Siren, Curse of Unbinding (7 mana is a lot for an Aura).

Part 7: Win Conditions

In: Since you're going all-in with auras, All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor do wonders.

Out: Bruna, Light of Alabaster is slow and telegraphed in this build. People won't let her stick to the field. Nissa, Steward of Elements is tough to protect in a Voltron build, while she only offers scry, which your lands can already do.

Part 8: Lands

In:

Out:

  • Thriving Grove, Thriving Heath and Thriving Isle are neat fixing, but the Temples are superior since they play into Galea's strategy.
  • Path of Ancestry is great if you're in a 5-color deck or in a tribal-heavy creature deck. This build is neither.
  • Lumbering Falls is good for suiting Equipments on, but Auras will just go to the graveyard when this land stops being a creature.
  • Azorius Chancery, because you don't run the other two bouncelands.
  • Razorverge Thicket. You'll soon realize that the later turns are more important than the early ones in EDH. This land is a beast in Modern, but it is far from worth it in Commander unless you're playing a turn-3 win deck.
  • Forest and Forest to give room for the two remaining Panoramas. (With all the land searching above, you're probably more likely now to have a target for Utopia Sprawl than before.)
  • Seaside Citadel. I know, I know: tri-lands are great and all, but, in this build, I'm trying to bake the top-of-library manipulation into the manabase so you have more free spell slots for your Auras, similar to what I did with Yennett, Cryptic Oddity (to a great success): each land in it has to either enter untapped somehow or change the top card of the library.

If you read this far, congratulations! Here is the list of the deck with all the suggested alterations, in case you want to test it: Galea, Menacing Aura. Good luck and have fun!

legendofa on

1 month ago

Looking at a meta Dimir Pioneer deck, https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pioneer-rogues#paper the new Faerie Mastermind has found a place, and Kaito Shizuki and Into the Story have slots. (Links not enabled, I apologize.)

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pioneer-mono-blue-spirits#paper has Curious Obsession and Combat Research.

Expressive Iteration got banned in Pioneer for being too efficient at creating and maintaining a hand state.

You had mentioned the mulligan rule earlier. I'm not an expert on hypergeometric calculations, but that is an accepted part of play at all levels, and goes a long way to minimizing the rate of unplayable hands. How does Shota's deck perform if you assume one mulligan on a hand with 0-1 or 5-7 lands, keeping all hands with 2-4 lands?

My thoughts of Witching Well and Opt were more to demonstrate that in particular has the ability to fix mana in hand at any budget. I didn't really make that clear in my post. If the tournament decks aren't running these cards, it's because they're running more efficient options.

Magic is absolutely a tough nut to crack, and I don't pretend to have all, or most, or any answers outside of quick searches of tournament lists and results and my own experience. The topic of balancing all the needs of your deck--mana, card draw, threats, responses--has had literal books written about it by high-level professionals, and then all the advice changes every few years. What works now might not work two years from now, and today's weird jank draft filler becomes tomorrow's top-tier combo piece.

One more thought, and this is my personal response to your earlier statement that "Most people would call you crazy if your "fun hobby " is fun 75% of the time." In baseball, if you succeed as a batter by getting on base 40% of the time, that's very notable. At the time of this writing, in the MLB, only fourteen people out of over 1,000 have an On-Base Percentage over .400, and exactly one person, Luis Arráez of the Miami Marlins, has an OBP of .500. So a 75% "fun" rate isn't necessarily grounds for craziness.

Again, if you decide you're not having fun and want to pack it in, I wish you the best of luck. If you want to stick around and chat without actually playing, please do. If you simply want to make a clean break, I hope you find the hobby that brings you lasting satisfaction and fulfillment.

Barbarian_Sun_Pope on Can't Touch This

2 months ago

Feels like Aqueous Form and Spirit Mantle would fit nicely here. Both of them work really nicely with your other enchantment (particularly Curious Obsession and are pretty cheap. You might also consider All That Glitters if you want to double up on Ethereal Armor. Hope this helps.

Niko9 on Looking for a casual but …

1 year ago

DrukenReaps Best of luck with the Olivia deck : ) I could see it being fun and fast, and it's a really swingy card. Definitely one that could start swinging early and hit hard late.

And yep, the pony is very fun. My main idea was to use Rarity for the B-side ability of protection rather than mainly the cost reducer part. Giving a Mischievous Catgeist  Flip evasion with a Reconnaissance Mission or Curious Obsession out is like a repeatable 1 mana draw 2. Or you can use protection to block removal on a biggie like phyrexian dreadnaught or save it for blocks to make Alaborn Zealot into an absolute menace.

One of my favorite pony tricks, and it's a little convoluted, but it's to get Rarity or Mother of Runes to give evasion to Taranika, Akroan Veteran who attacks with Daring Thief and it not only protects the thief but instantly untaps it for pre combat ridiculousness. No one ever expects Daring Thief to be a problem that they need to address : )

Niko9 on Crouching Satoru hidden Blightsteel

1 year ago

Looks like a fun ninja deck! I've been testing an evasive creatures deck and here are a few things I found good. Not sure if they will fit yours, but I figured it would be fun to brainstorm.

Bident of Thassa and Reconnaissance Mission are a little mana intensive but when bident draws you multiple cards per turn, it can pay for itself, for sure.

Quickling may not be a great creature, but it's an excellent way to protect your creatures while also giving you an evasive body. Might even be able to return them to your hand for another big ninjitsu attack.

Hypnotic Siren will usually be a 1/1 flyer for 1, but every now and then it's a splashy steal spell and the two modes make it very nice.

And just general Curiosity effects. Curious Obsession is great, Sword of Fire and Ice works, Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar can do a little and also has a nice secondary effect.

Oh, and I don't know if it's fast enough, but Quietus Spike can be pretty swingy with small evasive creatures.

Optimator on Tricksy Pixies

1 year ago

Some good enchantment-based card draw to note:

Kumena's Awakening - this would be an excellent choice on a budget. You should always have The City's Blessing. My favorite "not-Rhystic-Study" replacements.

Dire Undercurrents - amazing card but expensive. If I were you I would make this one of your first upgrades. Seems perfect.

Curious Obsession

Vampiric Rites

Arguel's Blood Fast  Flip and Greed and Erebos, God of the Dead - Alela's lifelink would help pay

Erebos, Bleak-Hearted is playable in this deck.

Dark Prophecy - the power is there, but might be difficult early.

Military Intelligence should be reliable. Great for two mana

Staggering Insight

Curse of Verbosity - I think it's kind of underrated. Should be good with your flyers and might take some heat off you. It's no Rhystic Study.

Rhystic Study duuuuhhhhh

Fall from Favor

Ophidian Eye

Insight - huuuge upside, potentially useless. I love it though!

Monastery Siege - it's basically drawing half a card per turn for three mana, but can protect your creatures if it's that part of the game. It's all right

Verity Circle - Huge upside, potentially useless

Phyrexian Arena - one of the best, but the price tag may not be worth it in this deck since you're running blue and can easily take advantage of flying creatures

Court of Ambition - it should be easy to get The Monarch whenever you want with your flyers

Marchesa's Decree is all right. Probably better in other decks

Sanctum of Calm Waters and Honden of Seeing Winds

Soul Ransom - might be fun to recur.

Teferi's Ageless Insight - might be good, better in decks where the commander draws cards. The power is there though.

Coastal Piracy

Kindred Discovery - ridiculous power with a ridiculous price tag to match. It's not a "may" ability so you can easily deck yourself. Isn't that winning though?

Patient Rebuilding - statistically draws one card a turn. Potentially high ceiling, can also whiff. Better for decks with graveyard synergies. Animate Dead and Necromancy are excellent, and Dance of the Dead is playable.

Mind Unbound

Well of Ideas

Thought Reflection

The_Acid_Drip on Ferngully (Help Wanted!)

1 year ago

Hey Balaam, have you thought of making this more like wizard tribal with a tiny-bit less emphasis fairy theme?

If so you could run it two ways.

1) Value wizards like Snapcaster Mage and Nimble Obstructionist are useful to tempo them out along with an upgraded counter package like Wizard's Retort. Support also expands to include Naban, Dean of Iteration and Naru Meha, Master Wizard who pumps your wizards and faeries. You'de likely have to swap out your scions for this. However, Cavern of souls makes your wizards uncounterable and you gain access to a wider tribe.

Also swapping out for snow lands so you can run Ascendant Spirit seems useful and holds a low opportunity cost.

2) The alternative is to force tribal matches with Arcane Adaptation. If you go this route you're basically running the best low cost blue value creatures, lots of cantrips and the 4x scions. You're using 'real' faeries less but all your creatures gain shroud. This is kinda like the Drogskol Captain combo used in Bant spirits, splashing green for collected company.

Which ever you go with 4x of Curious Obsession will likely help you tempo them out.

Great thematic deck. Kudos to you for trying to build something competitive around a fun theme. It's easy and derivative to just try and formulate "the best deck." Also those decks tend to have repetitive lines of play. Something slightly less competitive is going to be more challenging to pilot but it will also be significantly more rewarding and interactive.

That's how I lean when I tend to build my commander decks. Find and use the best enablers for an underpowered theme/tribe to bring it to a competitive level. Games are more surprising this way and people will be on the back foot, unable to write you off as a crude underestimation will lead to their elimination from the game.

zapyourtumor on Izzet blitz? yes it is! (budget)

1 year ago

Oh wait soul scar mage isn't 7 bucks anymore scratch everything I said about his price being high

The deck definitely looks better. Shock isn't great but there really isn't anything other than bolt thats good in that slot.

I originally didn't suggest Dragon's Rage Channeler because Mishra's Bauble is so expensive, but I think you could maybe cut 2 pyromancer 1 soul scar and 1 sprite dragon for 4 of them. Although you don't have artifacts, if you go up to 4 Curious Obsession youd have a decent number of enchantments, and you could also go up to a playset of Serum Visions for more sorceries. Running the delirium package would let you replace Shock with Unholy Heat. My main concern with that is you can't get lands into the graveyard without fetches or Fiery Islet, so it might not be worth adding the DRC package.

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