Drift of Phantasms

Creature — Spirit

Defender (This creature can't attack.)

Flying

Transmute (1)(Blue)(Blue) ((1)(Blue)(Blue), Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)

Discussion (51)

psionictemplar on Crabby Altar

1 week ago

So I had a big long response wrote out about some big changes I think would help you (both budget and not) and then I got to thinking about the trade routes some more. With that being said it led me to start over with my thinking and this is the results.

1. Chancellor of the Tangle : I think this would be a good addition to speed your deck up in combination with the simian spirit guide's. Being able to drop a turn 1 tribe scout and crab/altar in the same turn seems really strong. If you could manage to land a turn 2 retreat to coralhelm (using a simian spirit guide) then a turn 2 win would be possible. It would require Oboro, Palace in the Clouds (far from budget I know) and some other unlikely circumstances. The turn 3 is probably a safe bet though for an ideal win.

2. Heartbeat of Spring: This enchantment would allow you to generate mana off of your trade routes to use towards soratami activations of whatever else might entertain you later on. It works for both players so I wouldn't cast this until the turn you intend to win on.

3. Drift of Phantasms: This can tutor for retreat to coralhelm (or heartbeat) and can be grabbed off your incubation/incongruity.

4. Drop most all the red cards in favor of more lands and more crabs. Ruin Crab is an excellent addition to the mill strategy. Landing a turn 1/2 mill card is very important to your deck and you'll need the extra lands for landfall/coralhelm.

5. Clearwater pathway only produces blue for you so you might as well replace it with a basic island. This helps protect against Blood Moon and random things like Molten Rain.

zAzen7977 on Alchemy Balcony

3 weeks ago

Next I suggest swapping out expensive utility cards like Drift of Phantasms, Perplex, Muddle the Mixture, etc. for 1 drops to reduce your mana curve and allow turn 1 plays. Good candidates include Mishra's Bauble, Serum Visions, and Opt, which do not tutor for a card, but the additional card draw accomplishes the same objective without setting you back a whole turn.

You need to protect your combo proactively instead of reactively, so I suggest running Thoughtseize and/or Inquisition of Kozilek to remove threats before they are played. Force Spike and Spell Pierce are the best 1-drop counterspells, you may consider incorporating some into the main deck or sideboard. Removal like Fatal Push (in conjunction with fetchlands to trigger revolt) and Dismember are critical for dealing with creature-based decks and you should run at least 2 mainboard or on the side.

As far as the sideboard goes, great Karn targets are Wurmcoil Engine and/or Batterskull to gain life, which is critical against aggro and especially burn. Damping Sphere shuts down storm and ramp/Tron simultaneously. Ratchet Bomb wipes tokens or low cost permanents...

kei1 on Nekusar EDH Cards for Everyone

1 month ago

Caerwyn Thank you for the suggestions. Having alternate win cons defintitely sounds good to have.

Peoni Thank you for the suggestions. I forgot to ask about Notion Thief I definitely see the synergy with the wheels however I was wondering if I should be concerned about it lower damage potential on the wheels.
Currently I'm thinking of Black Sun's Zenith over Damnation Mostly because its reusable.

I am now wondering if I should also remove Bottomless Pit, Necrogen Mists, Oppression and double down on more mill mechanics.

Out:
Curse of Fool's Wisdom
Quest for the Nihil Stone
Fell Specter
Fate Unraveler
Dismember
Cunning Lethemancer
Liliana's Triumph
Liliana, Waker of the Dead
Drift of Phantasms

In:
The Locust God
Consecrated Sphinx
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Black Sun's Zenith
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
Izzet Signet
Rakdos Signet
Talisman of Creativity
Talisman of Indulgence
Notion Thief

jaymc1130 on Kinnan the Incredibly Frightening

1 month ago

From a competitive standpoint the deck is running so little interaction and protection as it stands that it won't ever be able to hold up in competitive settings.

You'll definitely want each of these pieces of interaction in a Kinnan helmed deck at a minimum:

xCounterspell xMental Misstep xDispel xFlusterstorm xMuddle the Mixture xCyclonic Rift xChain of Vapor xNature's Claim xFierce Guardianship xVeil of Summer xPongify/Rapid Hybridization

As it stands that won't be quite enough pieces to consistently have the access to permission and protection elements to remain in a competitive position in most game states and these pieces are worth running much of the time:

xNegate xDelay xInto the Roil/2cmc bounce spells (UG has very limited access to tools that can remove hate pieces from the board that prevent a win like Grafdigger's Cage, Notion Thief, or Narset, Parter of Veils.) xBeast Within

As an additional note about competitive Kinnan builds, you can lose the Dramatic Scepter stuff entirely. There's no need in a Kinnan deck. The most effective and efficient method of generating the infinite combo needed to win is any dork that can produce U and G mana combined with Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura. Basalt Monolith is worth running in Kinnan decks because it generates infinite colorless with just Kinnan out on the field also, so you can usually get a couple of Kinnan activations off to dig for Thrasios. For the mana dork complement it's best to stick with BoP, all the 1 cmc tap for G elf dorks, and then a handful of 2 cmc "tap for any color" dorks. The most effective back up infinite mana engines for a Kinnan deck are typically Simic Ragworm or Horseshoe Crab paired with Paradise Mantle and the Monolith (which is often why the deck runs Staff of Domination as an additional outlet that's easy to tutor for in the colors) rather than Dramatic Scepter combo as the Scepter combo relies on density of dorks and rocks to be engaged and this can be more difficult than a less card intensive engine (Crab, Mantle, Kinnan is 3 cards with one from the command zone compared to Kinnan, Dramatic Reversal, Isochron Scepter, 2 mana rocks/dorks at 5 cards to engage) and thus less reliable for the game play patterns Kinnan wants to ideally play from. Shapers of Nature and Thrasios, Triton Hero are the standard outlets that will eventually be found from Kinnan activations that allow you to draw the whole deck. From there winning is easy, so stick to win conditions that are more live than things like Blue Sun's Zenith and run Thassa's Oracle plus a looping mechanism (such as Narset's Reversal and Timetwister or Elixir of Immortality) to use the interaction pieces like Swan Song and Pongify as the win conditions (this helps to avoid other issues too, like not being able to win with Oracle due to Angel's Grace, etc, in addition to improving card slot efficiency). Green Sun's Zenith and Drift of Phantasms are generally considered must runs as tutor options for competitive Kinnan lists, but a good number of quality tutor options are available to provide consistency. Incubation Druid+Vigean Graftmage is somewhat popular as another back up 3 card game winning infinite combo line.

High_Priest_of_Avacyn on Wall defense

1 month ago

Some potential adds: Amaranthine Wall Angelic Wall Basilica Guards Bonded Fetch Colossus of Akros Consulate Skygate Doorkeeper Dragon's Eye Sentry Drift of Phantasms Charix, the Raging Isle Fog Bank Glacial Wall Golden Guardian  ^Flip Grave Bramble Guard Gomazoa Jaddi Offshoot Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch Ludevic's Test Subject  ^Flip Murmuring Phantasm Necropolis Order of the Stars Sprouting Phytohydra Steel Wall Sunscape Familiar Traproot Kami Tree of Redemption Wall of Hope Wall of Junk Wall of Kelp Wall of Nets Wall of Reverence Woolly Razorback Guard Duty Zephyr Net Belbe's Armor Dragon Throne of Tarkir Peregrine Mask

zapyourtumor on Mass Token Massacre

1 month ago

Also Drift of Phantasms can get all ur pieces

Phroggy1 on talrand 100 buck's

2 months ago

0rc thank you for commenting and replying on the deck. so in consideration to your Mass Polymorph and Synthetic Destiny lines of play and why i don't run them in this deck. #1 is BUDGET. the fact we don't have access to the mox's, crypts, vaults, petals and other costly fast mana we need to be blistering fast at getting the combo pieces together consistently, we are confined into shifting to a slower, grindier gameplan, relying on our control magic to draw longer games. we do not win turn 3 with this deck, but neither do our opponents. #2 is the extreme cost to cast these cards (again lack of solid ramp) means we don't typically get those cast off till later in the game and with the amount of cards we draw through recur able permanent based spells, possibility of these cards whiffing does exist. i have honestly thought about Dizzy Spell and Drift of Phantasms the dizzy spell main mode by itself is very rarely relevant so i have not included it, both cards are certainly slot-table via pilots choice. FOR THE REST OF THE SUGGESTION,many are decent options Delay especially solid i may look for a copy and then try to determine where a slot may exist. things to remeber 4 mana counters are BAD. overwhelming denial may seem to be a great card, but we are not using our counterspells for protection 99% of the time, in those instances likely we will not get to pay the surge cost for the card, as well we shy away from double blue pips in our 2 and 3 mana spells as much as possible to be able to get the mana reduction benefits from Baral, Chief of Compliance, Jace's Sanctum Helm of Awakening these cards can make so much impact on our deck allowing us to play spells like Snap Unwind and actually be mana positive. lol TCG low has me almost 5 bucks under, and i can't change the title now because the links i have posted would no longer work,. :D cheers

0rc on talrand 100 buck's

2 months ago

First off: this is a fantastic budget build. I love the dramatic/scepter combo—how quickly can we assemble it? I know you looked at my $75 budget deck and I hope you were able to gain something from it (thanks for the upvote and comment as well).

Here are my suggestions: Dizzy Spell will transmute for our hate pieces or our Sol Ring, if needed. Trophy Mage will fetch our Worn Powerstone. Alternatively, Drift of Phantasms will transmute for our Worn Powerstone, if needed. However, it is advised to have less creatures in Talrand for obvious reasons, including the following.

It will be crucial that we have rock power as quickly as possible once we have our dramatic/scepter combo pieces. This is why we should run Mass Polymorph and Synthetic Destiny. With Talrand, and a couple of drakes, we could Mass Polymorph into tutors for both all of our combo pieces at once and have them in hand.

This leads to the next area for consideration: protection. In my humble opinion, we are running a somewhat burdensome combo that realistically announces to your opponents “I’m going to win next turn.” (It’s ok, that’s my main beef with my own budget Talrand build as well). Also, once your opponents lose to this deck once, even those $2k cEDH decks seated at your table will lay the hate on you. Solution—You need more decisive and versatile countermagic to deal with the hate. Devious Cover-Up and Supreme Will are both decisive and versatile and serve purposes beyond mere countermagic. Overwhelming Denial is very decisive. Mental Misstep is a mini Force of Will. Abjure is decisive and has synergy with your commander. Void Shatter is harsh and decisive. Disrupt and Force Spike are soft, but you will be glad to have them, especially in a competitive meta. You may want to consider some oddball counters such as Time Stop. It’s too bad Cryptic Command and Mystic Confluence don’t fit the budget (or could they????). That’s maximal versatility.

Last word: by running Fact or Fiction, you are giving your opponents free reign to toss one of your combo pieces in the graveyard. Consider that. Also, is Opt really that great? I’ve been wondering about it in my own build. Also, just to nitpick and clean your title up: it’s “bucks”, not “buck’s” and you’re $5 over your $100 limit :)

I’m going to borrow some from you. Thanks.