Dark Ritual

Instant

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Discussion (45)

wallisface on Rat Infestation

4 days ago

Some thoughts:

• I'm not sure what format this is for, but in any case I assume 60 cards is what you should be aiming for here. While 62 might not seem like much of a concession, its going to make your draws worse overall.

• Akroma's Memorial feels quite pointless here, by the time you've reached 7 mana you've already either won or lost the game. This card feels like a "win more" scenario. I would say Alrund's Epiphany also fits into the same scenario, it requires an obscene amount of mana and doesn't really help you at all if you're behind, and won't change the outcome of the game if you're already ahead.

• I think you need some way to ramp up to Thrumming Stone... perhaps Dark Ritual helps here? Also you really want to be running more Relentless Rats to reliably trigger the stone... I'd suggest 1/3rd of your deck be Relentless Rats instead of 1/4.

• 27 lands feels excessive, even with the large cmc spells mentioned above. I'd drop down to 22-23, and add Dark Ritual.

• This on face value looks like a deck themed around getting out lots of Relentless Rats... which is why i'm surprised by some of your choices. The mill cards of Maddening Cacophony and Ashiok, Dream Render don't serve any purpose here as they're not enough on their own to ever mill out an opponent. I understand that Phenax, God of Deception might give you some ability to mill with the rats, but in 99% of cases you can just win by attacking with the rats... maybe just run a single copy of Phenax, God of Deception so you can Demonic Tutor for it if your opponent has something like Ensnaring Bridge in play?

Gattison on U.S.S. Deathstar: NCC-1701-FU (Paunza)

2 weeks ago

taylorfisdboss: Had some time to fiddle with this deck some more, and this is where I'm at currently. I could only find 1x Contaminated Ground, 1x Destroy the Evidence and 3x Psychic Venom in my collection. So I'm using 4x Singing Bell Strike and 3x Ninja of the Deep Hours as placeholders. I like the ninja's ability to let me re-use Balustrade Spy, so he may stay.

(My LGS isn't good for pauper singles, so next time I buy cards online... I'ma spend like 80 bucks on 10 cent singles. At least I'll get my money's worth lol)

Beyond that, Duress and Dark Ritual didn't work out as well as I thought in "playtesting", I felt like I needed to be more of a dick and have some legit removal, so Vapor Snag is back. Preordain is back because this is turning out to rely heavily on a few key cards, which makes it combo in my mind, which in turn means I either need to find redundancies to use as backups, or add draw power to find my pieces on time. Since there are no redundancies for Balustrade Spy and Destroy the Evidence in pauper, I went with draw. It's not enough though, so I'm back to brainstorming. Not using Brainstorm the card, just you know, using my brain.

My bad for the wait for a response. Also, I assume you're last sentence that got cut off was something along the lines of "love what you've done with the place." To which I say, thanks!

Gattison on U.S.S. Deathstar: NCC-1701-FU (Paunza)

3 weeks ago

taylorfisdboss: Hmm, yes, fair point. Part of my reasoning behind them is to make this degenerate paunza deck a bit more ... idk "fun?" It's harder to playtest in a vacuum, and since it's pretty douchy, I don't really wanna subject my playgroup to a bunch of playtests either.

Silverbluff Bridge is a good idea though, I'll get some and make that swap. It's always good to have backup plans.

You did make me reconsider my approach here though. I searched for cards that might have better synergy, but there are no pauper cards that care about your opponent's lands LTB or ETG. There is however Roiling Terrain and Destroy the Evidence which got me re-strategizing. If I add black and things like Duress and Balustrade Spy... and Dark Ritual... but then... Hm.

GolgariGravedigger on The Scarab God

1 month ago

Scarab God is tough to build competitively especially if you're on a budget, and the good zombies are not very cheap anymore. It looks like you have a lot cards from Amonket and Hour of Devastation. I really love those sets personally but most of the zombies in them are pretty lackluster in commander. I would cut a whole lot of these guys especially 4+ CMC zombies.

I recommend adding a lot more card draw, mana ramp, and single target removal. 10-12 draw spells, 10-12 ramp spells, and 5-10 removal spells are recommended for most EDH decks. The best draw, ramp, and removal spells are not really budget friendly anymore since pretty much everyone is playing them. But, there a few sleepers out there that, in my opinion, are really powerful budget cards.

Card draw spells:
Necrologia is like a budget Ad Nauseam but you can only play it at your end step.
Read the Bones is a classic that let's you dig into your library.
Stinging Study gets you 5 cards in this deck.
Underworld Connections is like a budget Phyrexian Arena, and it can draw you an extra card each turn.
Village Rites gets you 2 cards for 1 mana and it's a 1 time use sacrifice outlet.

For mana ramp generally you want to go with 1 or 2 CMC mana rocks that enter untapped if you aren't playing green: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Mind Stone, Liquimetal Torque, Thought Vessel, Prismatic Lens, and maybe an Ornithopter of Paradise, it's a decent mana dork. Add Talisman of Dominance if you want to pay $7 for one.

Outside of those I like Power Tap. Target The Scarab God and get 5 colorless mana. Power Tap is a sleeper budget card IMO. Don't cut Dark Ritual or Bontu's Monument.

For Single Target Removal you want to stick to 2-3 CMC instant speed removal spells that can target as many different types of permanents as possible. A few cards I like are: Feed the Swarm
Power Word Kill
Heartless Act
Go for the Throat
Personally, I really like Imprisoned in the Moon and Oubliette. They decomission your opponent's Commander. And both cards ate cheap since they were recently reprinted.

Also Counterspell cards can be very powerful.

A few inexpensive bombs you can add:
Gray Merchant of Asphodel is amazing.
Army of the Damned is an absolute beast in this deck. Both of those cards can you win you the game.

There are a lot more really great cards out there you can add, but I just wanted to list a few to get you started.

legendofa on Card creation challenge

1 month ago

Shift in the Tides

Sorcery

Scry 2, then reveal the top two cards of your library. Add for each Island and blue creature revealed this way.

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Yeah, it's a sorcery-speed ritual. But 's not a great color to give lots of ramp-y tricks to, and it can reliably match Dark Ritual's output plus scry.

Okay, create a white ramp card.

multimedia on Firja, Judge of Valor Budget EDH

1 month ago

Hey, well done so far on a budget.

Consider the Emeria Shepherd + Pyre of Heroes interaction with basic Plains? Shepherd is an Angel to reanimate because then she along with Plains can reanimate any nonland permanent. The interaction of these two cards comes from being able to sac an Angel to tutor for to cheat another one onto the battlefield and then reanimate the Angel you just saced with Shepherd. Just by playing a land Shepherd can get a nonland permanent into your hand such as Mind Stone to cast to help to trigger Firja.

Angel of the Ruins has a powerful ETB effect and is another nice Angel with Shepherd because any land can return Ruins to your hand to then plainscycle to search for a Plains. Another interaction with Pyre is repeatedly sacing the same Angel such as Angel of Despair and reanimating it with Shepherd as long as you have Plains.

Firja as a five drop starts the chain nicely with Pyre when saced to get a six drop Angel such as Valkyrie Harbinger and then Harbringer the next turn gets Shepherd. From there get back Harbringer with Shepherd and then sac it later on to get Sephara, Sky's Blade.

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Profane Tutor is a budget low CMC tutor that you cast from suspend. Open the Armory is a low CMC tutor to get Mask of Memory or Animate Dead. Dawn of Hope can do a lot when your Commander has lifelink as well as has evasion.

Court of Grace can be repeatable Angels as well as draw from the monarch. Flying Angels especially ones with vigilance can help to defend for you to keep the monarch, not letting your opponents do combat damage to you. Cleric Class is another one mana card that can help to gain life to trigger various effects and the other levels are good too.

Apprentice Necromancer has interaction with Sun Titan to repeatedly reanimate any 3 CMC or less permanent for one black mana. With Titan in your graveyard reanimate him with Necromancer. Titan ETB reanimates Necromancer and Titan has haste thus he attacks reanimates any other 3 CMC or less permanent. At your end step Titan is saced putting him in your graveyard to reanimate again with Necromancer on your next turn and repeat.

Titan can reanimate Evolving Wilds which is fuel for Emeria Shepherd. Because of Titan For one black mana you could repeatedly trigger Shepherd two times until you run out of Plains or nonland permanents to reanimate/recur. Patriarch's Bidding and Victimize are upgrades for some reanimate spells and Bidding is now a budget card.

Dark Ritual is one mana to help to cast a second spell to trigger Firja or use it to help to cast Firja since she's double black mana cost. Orzhov Signet, Talisman of Hierarchy, Mind Stone are some budget mana rock additions/upgrades. Caves of Koilos, Shineshadow Snarl, Snowfield Sinkhole, Path of Ancestry, Esper Panorama, Ash Barrens are some budget lands to consider adding.

If interested in any of these suggestions then I offer more advice of cuts to consider. Good luck with your deck.

enpc on ugg i need help

1 month ago

Before I go on to card swaps, I think that having a measurable "Turn X - Y equates to power level Z" is a bit silly. I get what you're trying to achieve with it, but the concept is very two dimensional when deck building and piloting is is not.

As for actual card changes - if you want to make the deck faster then a more consistent mana base will be step one. Yes, that means fetches. You have stuff like Crucible of Worlds which is midrange tech, yet if the goal was for speed then this contradicts the gameplan.

On top of that, you're not running Demonic Tutor or Diabolic Intent . If we're talking no budget, Imperial Seal is another one worth a slot. Night's Whisper is good card draw too, as is Sign in Blood .

I would also look into cards like Mana Crypt , Mana Vault and Dark Ritual . Cheap ramp effects are your friend. Big mana accelerators like Nirkana Revenant are counter-productive here, they don't help in the early game which is where you're trying to win.

A few extra reanimation effects like Apprentice Necromancer and potentially Doomed Necromancer are both useful here, since most of your combos can be assembled as creature only.

Mtg_Mega_Nerds on Need Next-level Ayara, First of …

1 month ago

You need more ramp since you have a lot of expensive cards. For ramp you need: Arcane Signet , Charcoal Diamond , Jet Medallion , Nyx Lotus , Dark Ritual , Culling the Weak , Wayfarer's Bauble , Bubbling Muck . Take out Ugin, the Ineffable . I don't know why you have it, there are hardly enough colorless cards to make it effective. Also take out Josu Vess, Lich Knight , Abhorrent Overlord , and a couple more expensive cards that cost 6+ cmc. You also need to change your boardwipes. They are far too expensive to be effective. Trade Necromantic Selection for Shadows' Verdict , Deadly Tempest for Mutilate , Oblivion Stone for Soul Shatter . I would suggest Decree of Pain for Damnation or Toxic Deluge considering the deck price. Other cards to consider adding: Swiftfoot Boots , Defile , Phyrexian Arena , Sign in Blood , Read the Bones , Night's Whisper . Since you are already running good sac outlets, Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire consider adding an Infinite Mana Combo. Make these changes and the deck will be much faster and more competitive.