Cursed Totem

Artifact

Activated abilities of creatures can't be activated.

Discussion (51)

psionictemplar on B/R Ponza

1 week ago

All right, some of this may seem weird, but hear me out.

One of the biggest advantages land destruction has going for it is the ability to disrupt an opponents mana before they can properly set up. With that being said, you have way too many cards that cost 3 mana and no way to play them early. What I'm going to suggest is trying to remove a few of those cards in favor of cards that will accelerate your remaining land destruction spells. What's coming to mind worth trying is 4 copies of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer .

Here's why. This can give you an early play that can potentially set up a 3 mana spell on turn 2 (assuming played t1) for you if it can connect. Not only that, but being a legendary creature, you have the option of potentially adding Mox Amber as an additional mana source. Now, you'll probably want more legendary creatures to properly make use of the mox's which is where something like Zurgo Bellstriker could also help with being aggressive and progressing you plan.

The other main thing I'm going to suggest is adding a couple more lands (swamps probably). The reasoning being that if you do happen to land a blood moon/magus of the moon, then you may very easily lock yourself out of black mana. One thing to keep in mind is that if you don't have enough mana, then you can't stop theirs.

My final consideration for you is to possibly add white to your deck to access the Flagstones of Trokair and Boom / Bust combination. Not only that, but you'd have access to Vindicate as well.

Here's the tl:dr of what I'm going to suggest: Add: 4 ragavan, 2 zurgo, 3 mox amber, 2 swamps. Cut: 4 brainstone (when will you have time to use this?), 3 harness the storm (I really can't see you having enough mana to make use of it), 4 fulminator mage (betting on Cursed Totem seeing play, making this unable to do the 1 job it has.)

These changes should not only speed your deck up, but allow you to put on some early pressure to your opponents life total.

lloptyr on Sneaky Purphuros

2 months ago

KiKiwiKiwaii both is good lol.. but for real... the cheat-ins are overwhelmingly disgusting.. I love it, but I want a Cursed Totem next time I play against it

zAzen7977 on KAALIA'S CATACLYSM - Aggro/Stax [cEDH Primer]

2 months ago

XinZhao, I had the opportunity to play a few games recently, and I’ve decided to swap Cursed Totem with Grand Abolisher , since I encountered two situations in which I had Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Totem at the same time, and I wish I had Abolisher instead. In the past I ran Abolisher, but I took it out because my meta was less control-heavy and I was dealing with more creature abilities.

While I don’t run any infinite combos, I do run the Possibility Storm + Rule of Law / Drannith Magistrate hard lock, so Abolisher protects me while I assemble the combo.

I also dropped Fellwar Stone and Rakdos Signet and added Grim Monolith and Mana Vault , to help with hard-casting big creatures or the Possibility Storm combo if Kaalia is neutralized.

Coletrain69 on Grixis Spellslinger EDH

2 months ago

Ponder might not be a bad idea and I have a few of them, Gitaxian Probe is also decent for knowing when to save a counter spell and I think I have one of those as well. Three Wishes is a really interesting card that I think would be a lot more fun in commander; I have a couple. Frantic Search might also be decent if you don't like what's in your hand. Cyclonic Rift is also really good and despite it being expensive I'm pretty sure we own one. Talrand, Sky Summoner is also a classic for this kind of deck, and there's also Murmuring Mystic . One of my favs that I think would work really well is The Locust God . Jace's Archivist is really interesting as well and can help you if you're top decking and hurt everyone else, another great option for the same thing is Whispering Madness . Torrential Gearhulk might be slightly pricey but he matches well with what you're doing. Lim-Dul's Vault is also super handy and can be pretty zaney especially for it being cheap. Disallow is pretty crazy too for blocking activated abilities. Bolas's Citadel is also worth looking at. Cursed Totem is really expensive but would also be CRAZY in this deck. Also check out Propaganda .

As far as removal goes, Go for the Throat is always a good option.There's also Slaughter Pact and Force of Despair . Preemptive removal like Sadistic Sacrament would be a great idea as well. Decree of Pain is good but it's mana cost is kind of high; Life's Finale is an equally viable card. Unsommon is super cheap, Boomerang , Undo , Snap , do more or less the same thing.

Lanzo493 on Dealing with Kinnan

3 months ago

Kinnan is my cEDH deck. So I’ll divulge lots of the strategies. You’ll want to stop the infinite mana, but there’s a lot of ways that it does infinite mana. Mainly, just 2 categories. Storm off with Tidespout Tyrant or Isochron Scepter / Lithoform Engine with Dramatic Reversal and mana positive mana rocks or do infinite untaps with Freed from the Real , Pemmin's Aura or Basalt Monolith . With the introduction out of the way, let’s talk interaction. The best would be Null Rod type effects. You can’t run Cursed Totem sadly given your commander. Cheap enchantment or artifact removal is also good. Heartwood Storyteller prevents them from storming off easily. So would Damping Sphere . Grafdigger's Cage could work. Although it is narrow, if the only infinite mana outlet they have is Kinnan, they won’t be able to use his ability. It also stops Chord, Finale, and Green Sun’s Zenith.

smilodex on Best Commanders in EDH [Tier List]

3 months ago

This list is compiled from a competitive point of view and in the upper tiers we compare the cEDH variants of the respective decks and here Yuriko often serves as a strong value engine (like Edric or Tymna for example). In contrast to Thrasios, Kenrith or Najeela, Yuriko isn't a direct wincon with which you can win in the first two rounds. Yuriko is simply very strong by nature, because you don't really have to pay command tax at all, which makes it difficult to interact with her. She also deals damage to every opponent AND you still draw many cards. BUT on the other side you can shut Yuriko out of the game if somebody get a Cursed Totem , Linvala, Keeper of Silence , Pithing Needle / Phyrexian Revoker or a Containment Priest on the board. If that happens, all of a sudden the deck is stuck with a lot of expensive spells and pretty useless ninjas.

Skillville on QQ

4 months ago

king-saproling whoa, love the response. ok, where to start...

I'll wrap up any creatures with activiated abilities by saying my previous versions of QQ included the tap, put land into play creatures but took them out to avoid worrying about Cursed Totem . Decided to go a different route because of that.

Most of the other cards I just cant fit in the deck but Intution is interesting, I may pick one up to play test.

The most valuable suggestion you provided was Ghostly Flicker , for the ewit sanc combo.. didn't think about that when brewing and I initially had it in my maybe list but removed it after I updated it. I'll have to find a spot... any suggestions to make it fit?

Heavy-Metal on Yuriko Ninja, Go Ninja, GO!

4 months ago

hey, don't you think that Cursed Totem would hurt your ninjitsu just as much as other peoples decks.