Damping Sphere

Artifact

If a land is tapped for two or more mana, it produces instead of any other type and amount.

Each spell a player casts costs more to cast for each other spell that player has cast this turn.

Discussion (47)

Oof_Magic on Incorporeal Zombies (Modern Spirits)

1 month ago

Revan0287 I don’t update my SB as much as I do my MB. I have Geist of Saint Traft and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner because at the time Grixis Shadow and W/U/r Control were topping the format. Sanctifier is moderately okay against Shadow and utterly useless against Control. Perhaps the format is in a different place. I haven’t gotten out to play in quite a while but I adjust my sideboard when I do. I find discussing SB slots to be hit or miss as that is more targeted to a local meta. I’ll consider Sanctifier but will wait to play in my local meta before I make any change.

I will note that Damping Sphere is probably more effective against Tron than Void Mirror. Just because Tron runs a lot of colorless cards doesn’t mean they can’t just use colored mana while playing those spells so Void Mirror is easier for Tron to play around. Mirror is great for the MH2 Evoke Incarnations. Considering Grief and Solitude are by far the most played, an evoked Grief is probably coming out quicker than Void Mirror and I think spirits have enough resiliency between Rattlechains, Drogskol Captain, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, and to a lesser extent Glasspool Mimic  ^Flip as well as Geist of Saint Traft. I think including Solitude becomes a weak argument for Mirror. But to reiterate what I said earlier about SB slots, your local meta may warrant it.

wallisface on Mono-Green counters

1 month ago

The deck looks fine. There are a bunch of cards that feel too slow to run personally (most notably Gyre Sage, Swarm Shambler, Tireless Tracker, Voracious Hydra). There’re also a bunch of cards i’d be expecting a deck like this to have which appear to be missing (Pelt Collector, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Cloudfin Raptor, Thrummingbird). So the list overall feels ok, but not as fine-tuned as it could be, imo.

As far as bad matchups, that’s where your sideboard comes in - at the moment I would suggest this is the spot that needs the most attention if you’re getting competitive.

Some sideboard cards to consider:

• Void Mirror for Crashing Footfalls and Living End

• fast graveyard removal. Scavenging Ooze is alright, but there are many 0-1 mana artifacts that can get the job done better. Surgical Extraction is also good.

• anti-combo, I’m thinking Damping Sphere, and Dismember.

• artifact hate.

Now, the quantities of the above will depend on your own local meta, as well as how badly they scare your deck. Sideboard choices should always be focused towards your local competitive playgroup. Saying that, the above mentioned suggestions are likely to come in handy.

Other things to consider as far as good-vs-bad matchups, for your sideboard choices:

• don’t worry about control, imo. You should be aiming to be fast enough to have the advantage. Saying that, do consider the likes of Veil of Summer if it’s an issue (though i would say, if it is an issue, it’s because your mainboard isn’t tuned enough).

• Board wipes feel like they could pose a big threat for you

• Burn, and other hyper-aggro decks are probably going to have an advantage

MixDr0n3 on Bant Stoneblade

3 months ago

Symph0nyS0ldier that sideboard seems very playble. Ashiok, Dream Render is definitely better than Leonin Arbiter as it doesn't impact your ability to fetch your lands too. And overall the land count isn't a huge deal, especially not with your curve as low as it is. 22 lands can still get Tireless Tracker pretty big, as long as you can consistently get him out and keep him out.

The only thing I would have a concern about with that sideboard is to make sure you learn the meta of where you're gonna be playing the most and make adjustments as need be. Some decks may be more prominent in your meta than they are in mine or anyone else's so just bear that in mind. Like depending on which decks you see most often you might want more of some of those cards, less of others, or even some different cards entirely. I would say that dredge is a very popular deck in modern and worth sideboarding against. You mentioned Rest in Peace earlier. I would probably take out one Damping Sphere and one Ashiok, Dream Render to make space for a couple copies of Rest in Peace. Especially if you think you're going to go up against any kind of graveyard deck. But other than that, it seems very solid to me.

Symph0nyS0ldier on Bant Stoneblade

3 months ago

MixDr0n3 I completely forgot about Damping Sphere. For some side changes what do you think about something like.

3 Damping Sphere big mana + storm hate
3 Anticognition hits the Tron targets and is more flexible than Ceremonious Rejection
2 Outland Liberator  ^Flip artifact/enchant hate
3 Ashiok, Dream Render can't be paid away like Leonin Arbiter and is harder to interact with. Replaces both RIP and arbiter with costing just 1 more mana.
2 Surgical Extraction good all around hate for problem cards
2 Pithing Needle

Yeah I am a bit land light but I have a fairly low curve and plenty of fetches to feed the Tireless Tracker I may see about upping my land count but my esper deck has a 2.97 average cmc and only one more land without problems so I don't think it's going to be a big deal.

MixDr0n3 on Bant Stoneblade

3 months ago

Symph0nyS0ldier, I'm glad I didn't come across as a jackass. I wasn't sure since it's hard to convey tone on the internet lol.

Rest in Peace is very solid especially for those dredge decks (which pains me to say because I am myself a dredge player lol). And that makes so much more sense over Stony Silence.

I absolutely agree that Teferi, Hero of Dominaria makes it hard to lose if you ult him. As someone who played against a Jeskai Control deck featuring Teferi every week throughout Dominaria standard and even into GRN standard, it is hard to win if his ultimate goes off. I would personally run 3 but it's not necessarily vital that you do.

So knowing that your intent with Ceremonious Rejection was to hose tron, there are a couple of other options that you could go with to disrupt what they want to do. For example, land hate. If you can destroy their Urza lands then that really hurts them. Then if you pair that land hate with Surgical Extraction you can permanently take away one of them, which means they can never get 7 mana from three lands. And yes, extraction is a black card but it's a phyrexian black so you don't have to have a black mana source you can just use your life. Or something like Leonin Arbiter could also be pretty useful as it prevents them from using their Expedition Map to find the remaining Urza lands. Or even something like Pithing Needle, which was reprinted in MID, could be very helpful too.

I wouldn't worry too much about Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The mana value of 15 means that there are a very limited number of decks that can effectively run it. The only deck that's going to want to run it is tron, eldrazi, or a very good ramp deck, but even that isn't likely as the only deck that does consistently run Emrakul is tron and eldrazi. Other than those decks, it'll take minimum of 15 turns to get Emrakul out and that's if they don't miss any land drops. And with tron and eldrazi, it's easy enough to screw with their mana to where they can't get her out quicker than they should if you have land hate. Hell, I run Damping Sphere in my sideboard for my Sultai Dredge deck to help counter tron which prevents them from getting more than one mana from each of their lands at once.

Tireless Tracker is a fantastic card, if you have a lot of lands. And it can be a very dangerous threat too. But you are running only 22 lands. Most control decks run around 27 and most midrange decks run around 23-24. But that's not the end of the world. However, I feel like it would be a good idea to run at least one more copy of it, if not two more copies to maximize your chances of drawing it. But again, entirely up to you.

If you like Qasali Pridemage because he's a creature that also doubles as artifact/enchantment removal, then Outland Liberator  ^Flip might be worth looking into. It's got the same activated ability, but it's a new werewolf (daybound/nightbound) where his flip side is a 3/3 with "When this creature attacks, destroy target artifact or enchantment defending player controls" AND the activated ability too.

You've got some good things going here. I hope you find the lineup that works best for you!

YamishiTheWickedOne on Sexy Vampires

3 months ago

Once you're comfortable with the deck, we should start looking into constructing a sideboard.

4x Nihil Spellbomb is some of the best graveyard hate around, followed by Grafdigger's Cage and Ashiok, Dream Render or if 3 mana isn't a problem, Go Blank.

Artifact hate is a little more tricky without red, I'll get back to you on that.

For anti-tokens, good options are Ratchet Bomb, Engineered Explosives, and Liliana, the Last Hope.

Anti-Tron and/or anti-land: Damping Sphere, Fulminator Mage.

Card that does a little bit in a lot of matchups: Pithing Needle

Extra planeswalker hate: Vampire Hexmage and a bunch of other stuff printed recently like Murderous Rider.

Extra hand disruption against combo decks: Duress, Surgical Extraction

Anti-Hatebears: Torpor Orb

And there are plenty of other options. Artifacts are particularly useful if you need a card for certain matchups that your color (monoblack) isn't good at handling on its own.

Boogsbay on Orzhov Gravecrawler/ Zombie Sacrifice

3 months ago

The deck looks good but seems somewhat slow. Some suggestions IMO would be:

• Out 4 Cryptbreaker for 4 Undead Augur which gives a lot of card advantage with no life loss thanks to Zulaport Cutthroat and Wayward Servant. The problem with Cryptbreaker is that it needs 3 zombies to draw a card. The Augur also pairs great with Village Rites and Bone Shards for more card advantage. If any board wipe happens, you can sacrifice your zombies to Carrion Feeder to trigger the Augur to easily rebuild.

• Out 2 Tidehollow Sculler, 1 Zulaport Cutthroat, and 1 Village Rites for 4 Carrion Feeder to enable a more consistent aristocrat playstyle and have a growing threat. Pairs with Cutthroat to end games.

• Out 2 Doomskar and 2 Bone Shards for 4 Fatal Push. Fetch lands and an aristocrat strategy easily triggers revolt.

• Out 6 Plains for Fetch Lands that can fetch a swamp (Marsh Flats is at it's cheapest)

• Out 4 Isolated Chapel for 4 Godless Shrine. The shock land also prevents Castle Locthwain from entering tapped.

• Out 1 swamp and 2 Castle Locthwain for 3 Geralf's Messenger. With a smaller average CMC, you can cut a few more lands for more creatures. Keeping just 1 Castle is also good enough since Augur in the main deck gives more cards than the Castle's ability.

Some considerations:

• Corpse Knight over Wayward Servant to include Zulaport Cutthroat for ETB triggers.

• Unearth over Blasting Station if you already swapped out some land for Geralf's Messenger. These two, at the very least, makes the opponent lose 8 life; more with Cutthroat and Knight on the field. Reanimating other creatures is also another viable strategy to get out of a tight situation.

• Ghoulish Procession over Jadar since it's a nonlegendary permanent that can potentially make more zombies to fuel an aristocrats strategy and trigger ETB and death triggers.

For sideboard:

• 4 Tidehollow Sculler, 4 Prismatic Ending, 2 Doomskar, 2 Damping Sphere, 2 Bone Shards, and 1 Feed the Swarm. Diregraf Colossus and Ebondeath, Dracolich are too slow to really make a difference in the long term.

cyeRunner on Boros Knight Tribal

3 months ago

Deck looks nice, but still a bit rough around the edges
I recommend following changes:
Cut 1 Embercleave for 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: having a 4-of legendary card is quite difficult, because you can only have 1 Embercleave on the field and the second one might get stuck in your hand. Gideon can be a wincon on his own and his Tokens are Knights.
For the lands: depending if you own the fetchlands and shocklands already or still have to invest in them, you still have cheaper options (or add them instead of the basic lands) : Tournament Grounds (ignore the ), Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip, Inspiring Vantage, Sunbaked Canyon, Clifftop Retreat.
For the sideboard add following cards:
1-2 Blossoming Calm against Burn
3-4 Rest in Peace against Graveyard-Decks
2-3 Damping Sphere against Tron, Storm and Amulett Titan