Elemental Bond

Enchantment

Whenever a creature with power 3 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.

Discussion (47)

slashdotdash on Golos attempt II

6 days ago

Hey there Kronhamilton,

First of all, I like the improvements you’ve made to your deck. It’s already looking a lot slicker and I can see you’ve made some very fun looking changes to how the deck plays.

You’ve got a nice array of threats (I always love to see the Bringers and Ur-Dragon) and a decent amount of ramp which are both a big plus. Additionally, you’ve got the beginnings of some nasty graveyard synergy shaping up, which looks really, really cool as a sort of plan B.

That being said, I’d like to make a few suggestions to help guide you toward a more consistent and powerful Golos deck. Please remember that these suggestions are just my informed opinion, and that I totally respect whatever deck choices you decide to make. I really just want to help you get comfortable with deck building and learning what to look for in a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ card.

Broad Suggestions

I would encourage you to add 2 Lands, 3 Removal cards, and 8 Draw cards. I’d also think about adding 2 more Ramp cards, but that is less critical to the overall health of the deck. Your Threats look great and I think your Sweepers are also appropriate. Anything that synergizes with your graveyard backup plan is great.

There are a couple of things to think about as you play this deck; 1. “Am I happy or sad to be holding this card in my hand or drawing it off the top of my deck?” – If a card seems to constantly be ‘the wrong card’ for the situation, or you can never seem to cast it, or you always play other cards instead, or you tend to die while holding a certain card, then you probably want to think about how well that card fits in your deck and whether or not you should cut it or modify the deck to support it. 2. “What ongoing advantage does this card give me?” – Some cards seem like a decent card based on having decent power/toughness, a fair cost, and some neat keywords or abilities. Just having those upsides alone though doesn’t make a card truly powerful. Instead, try to think about what ways a card can synergize with your deck to create crazy effects or otherwise how it will become more dangerous as the game progresses (like a Quartzwood Crasher, Scute Swarm, or Giant Adephage). Additionally, try to find cards that do multiple things such as Chasm Skulker which gets bigger when you draw cards and also explodes into tokens when it dies, or even Ravenous Chupacabra which deals with a threat and also acts as a blocker when you are facing pressure. The key is finding a way to levarage the most amount of value in each individual card – even a 2 mana ramp spell will set you up to play all of your future spells 1 turn earlier than normal for the rest of the game, which can be an insane advantage when you think about it. 3. “Am I out of options?” – If you can’t seem to find a solution to a problem or you’re ‘running out of steam’, then it is likely that you need more card draw and more ways to create ‘engines’ that accrue value. An example of an engine would be Fertilid + Evolution Sage or Rampaging Baloths + Elemental Bond or Kruphix, God of Horizons + Victory Chimes or Atraxa, Praetors' Voice + Ajani, the Greathearted or Anointed Procession + Endless Ranks of the Dead or Search for Azcanta  ^Flip or Deadbridge Chant or Mind Unbound, etc.

Ramp

Your ramp looks pretty good with 10 dedicated Ramp cards. I’d suggest adding 2 more Ramp spells to really help speed things up early. Examples would be Kodama's Reach, Llanowar Elves, Wild Growth, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Springbloom Druid, etc.

Ramp - 10

• Fertilid

• Palladium Myr

• Solemn Simulacrum

• Cultivate

• Arcane Signet

• Commander's Sphere

• Ketria Crystal

• Raugrin Crystal

• Savai Crystal

• Sol Ring

Not Ramp

• Azusa, Lost but Seeking - you don’t have enough land + card draw to really capitalize on Asuza’s ability.

• Empowered Autogenerator – this card is vastly too slow to be considered a true Ramp card. At best I would call it a ‘Ramp Support’ card, because it is there to slowly help you in the late game, not propel you in the early game like a true Ramp card (Rampant Growth, Farseek, Fertile Ground, Llanowar Elves, Wild Growth)

Draw

Overall, I think your card draw package needs a little bit of love. I want to note I see a lot of ‘looting’ effects like the ones on Teferi, Master of Time or Obsessive Stitcher and while these cards are great for a graveyard strategy they still don’t count as card draw. I’d keep most of these ‘looting’ type cards, but try to find cards that get you about 2 or 3 cards such as Harmonize, Concentrate, Escape to the Wilds, Urban Evolution, Moldervine Reclamation, Deathreap Ritual, Recurring Insight, Mind Unbound, Underworld Connections, Cloudblazer, Mulldrifter, Drawn from Dreams, Return of the Wildspeaker, Harvester of Souls, Momentous Fall, Dream Trawler, Keeper of Fables etc.

Draw - 2

• Bringer of the Blue Dawn (nice)

• Reconnaissance Mission

Not Draw

• Barrin, Tolarian Archmage – drawing 1 card does not really count. If anything, Barrin is like slow, bad removal for dealing with your opponents’ stuff temporarily. If you’re interested in reusing Golos’s land finding ability I would recommend playing Soulherder instead.

• Solemn Simulacrum – He has sort of ‘incidental value’ with his death trigger but doesn’t actively net you a bunch of cards like Keruga, the Macrosage or Beast Whisperer. Sad Robot is still great though.

• Titanoth Rex – still keep this guy because he is a threat that isn’t dead in your hand on turn 5.

• Void Beckoner – same story as the Rex

• Teferi, Master of Time – Teferi’s great, but he is really at his best when you’ve got 4-7 card in hand so that you can throw a bunch of big threats to the graveyard and hopefully draw a reanimation spell. Other than that, Teferi isn’t going to refill your hand so he doesn’t count as true draw.

Removal

Your removal package looks like it needs a couple more additions to keep your deck responsive and able to handle imminent-doom type threats. It is worth noting that cards like Blatant Thievery or Mythos of Illuna can save you in certain situations, but be wary of their crazy mana costs and the fact that they are not instant-speed answers. Examples include Mythos of Nethroi, Beast Within, Price of Fame, Reality Shift, Terminate, Return to Nature, Putrefy, Utter End, Eat to Extinction, Murderous Rider, etc.

Removal – 4 (aim for 7)

• Mortify

• Despark

• Barrier Breach

• Disenchant

Cuts

There are several cards that I would consider cutting first when modifying the deck.

• Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast - he relies very heavily on luck and only interacts with creatures. This makes him good with only 30% of your deck. Additionally, Lukka can’t ‘protect’ himself like Garruk can (making tokens to block for him), nor does he have an immediately accessible removal ability like Teferi. Overall, Lukka is interesting but a little lacking in consistency, defensibility, and power.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking – you don’t have enough land + card draw to really capitalize on Asuza’s ability. Yes, you can use the double lands (like Gruul Turf) to bounce a land to hand and then play that land with Asuza, but realistically that’s such a narrow and relatively tame synergy (in this non-landfall deck, that is) that you would be better off playing a Farseek or a Rampant Growth or even a Fertile Ground.

• Sparkhunter Masticore - This little fellow has a major drawback and no seriously crazy abilities that make him worthwhile. Yes he can deal with planeswalkers, but so can a Murderous Rider or an Eat to Extinction. Yes he can be an indestructible 3/4, but you have to pay 3 mana just to make him indestructible. Under normal circumstances that’s 6 mana for a 3/4 that dodges death one time - a 3/4 just isn’t fantastic. The biggest bad news about this robocat is its “additional cost to cast” ability which means that even if you hit it with Golos’s ‘Rainbow Wheel of Death’ ability, you still have to discard a card for a 3/4. I just honestly think you’d rather have a removal spell (Beast Within, Mythos of Nethroi) instead of this cat any day.

• Pursued Whale - While this whale is kinda cool and he does force combat, he is just sorta expensive for what he does. 7 mana for an 8/8 is pretty standard and giving your opponents tokens (that they could just attack you with or sacrifice to an effect) can be a bad idea in some situations, such as when they have an Beastmaster Ascension or a similar effect on the field. While his semi-hexproof ability (3 more mana to target) seems nifty, that is one of the only really powerful highlight abilities of this card, meaning that ability is protecting a relatively low-powered card. A couple immediate alternatives come to mind for me; Geode Rager to force combat AND keep you safe, and Dream Trawler for a flying, hexproof, lifelinking, card drawing threat.

• Renata, Called to the Hunt - She just isn’t fantastic. You aren’t playing a devotion centric deck in which she might become a 10/10, and your strategy doesn’t really care about 1/1 counters either. I would consider replacing her with a Harmonize or another 3 or 4 drop with more impactful abilities. Heck, even another reanimation spell could be nice like Unburial Rites or Grave Upheaval since your deck seems to have some tendency to but things in the graveyard for later.

• Lorescale Coatl - Cards like this (or his bigger cousin Chasm Skulker) are really designed for “wheel decks” that play “wheel effects” like Windfall or Reforge the Soul. He is fine, but really not much better than that. If you want a threat that can grow faster and do more important things, try Managorger Hydra or even Scute Mob.

• Colossification - This aura is too expensive, taps your creature down, and worst of all is an aura. Auras are generally quite bad because your opponent can destroy your creature and the aura attached to them with one spell – and odds are they’ll do that because it is usually too juicy not to. The fact that you can’t attach Colossification and attack immediately means that your opponents will have a full turn to deal with it before you get a chance to use it (and keep in mind your Colossified creature needs to survive 3 opponents’ turns!). This means you’ll most likely run out of cards in a hurry without accomplishing anything.

• Door to Nothingness - Unlike Progenitus, you can’t reanimate the Door, nor can you get its full value off of the Rainbow Wheel of Death. The only time this card does anything at all is when you literally have 10 mana of the exact color combination necessary to use it. It’s still your call, and I know some people make it a goal to Door their opponents, but be warned: you probably don’t have as much ramp as you need to make this work well. I’d consider supporting this crazy cards (and your many expensive threats for that matter) with a few more ramp spells – Boundless Realms, Migration Path, Circuitous Route, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, Zendikar Resurgent

• Azor's Gateway  ^Flip – This card belongs in a very specific variant of Golos. That variant is the Minamo, School at Water's Edge Golos deck which also runs stuff like Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Fatestitcher, Kiora's Follower, and other payoffs like Jegantha, the Wellspring, or Captain Sisay. Especially considering that Sanctum of the Sun (the flip side) adds X mana of only 1 color, I think this card is just rarely going to work like you want it to unfortunately.

• Lathliss, Dragon Queen - Basically, you only have 3 other dragons in the deck so I would either exchange a bunch of cards for more dragons or cut Lathliss, since she will rarely be able to use her best ability (5/5 tokens). Keep in mind, you could also run a bunch of cards with the ‘changeling’ keyword if you wanted to get really funky, in which case you may as well also play stuff like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Reaper King, Crested Sunmare, The First Sliver but that’s a very slippery and insane slope that I’m not sure you want to get sucked into.

Summary

Nice changes Kronhamilton, I can see that your deck is really starting to shape up as a rampy graveyard-mingling Golos deck, and that’s really cool. I encourage you to try and pay attention to what situations you find yourself in, as that’s often the best way to tell what cards you need to cut or add to the deck for it to work best. As a default, I’d consider making a few of the changes I mentioned in the Broad Suggestion section, as those changes should just generally help with your deck’s consistency.

Please do let me know how you decide to tune your deck – it’s really fun to watch honestly, and I’m always down to help advise you. Other than that, take care and enjoy Golos!

Best,

-Slashdotdash

HorseTribalLord on Dragons Galore

6 days ago

Okay, so budget isn't a huge deal then, and I do agree with all of multimedia's suggestions. I believe that Temur Ascendancy is a better option over Elemental Bond due to the fact that both do draw cards when creatures enter the battlefield and the difference between having 4 and 3 power doesn't affect you since most dragons are power 4 or up anyways, but ascendancy also gives creatures haste which is a big thing.

Now for upgrades

• Morophon, the Boundless>Boneyard Scourge

• Balefire Dragon>Intet, the Dreamer

• The five Ikoria triomes>corresponding tri-lands

• Skyshroud Claim>Kodama's Reach

• Dragon Broodmother>Crosis, the Purger

• Thunderbreak Regent>Dragonlord's Servant

So Morophon, the Boundless is just a fantastic card especially in a five color tribal such as this, most dragon cards have only a single pip of each color in their cost, so when you combine Morophon's reduction with the Ur-dragon you can be casting dragons for a single mana... and boneyard scourge just isn't really worth all the mana in the long run. Next Balefire Dragon is just an all around great card that can keep your opponent's boards under control, and Intet, the Dreamer again isn't really worth it having to pay that three to get the card, its a neat card advantage trick, but it think there are enough ways in this deck to just straight up draw that card instead of having to pay three for it. Then the five Ikoria triomes just provide more versatility over their corresponding tri-lands just because they can not only be cycled late game, but they can also be fetched with Farseek or Skyshroud Claim which was my next suggestion specifically because of the triomes. then Dragon Broodmother is just a dragon all star giving you lots of tokens to get all of your attack triggers and to create lots of chump blockers and maybe a big guy eventually, and Crosis, the Purger again isn't really cutting it with the amount of value he gives, against a mono-colored deck it can be alright, but every color you add on to an enemy deck it gets significantly worse. and finally Thunderbreak Regent over Dragonlord's Servant because the servant is very vulnerable and doesn't provide much value in the long run while the regent is an efficient early drop dragon that helps to protect your board from targeted removal or any other targeted ability.

zuharran on Ashaya, Soul of the Wild: Be-Leaf in Yourself

1 week ago

So, finally stopping by to give some suggestions! The suggestions I'll make are based off of optimizing, so if budget is an issue, then some of my ideas may not be very helpful. I'll list out my thoughts in bullet format, so here we go!

1. Mana Dorks: I personally am not a fan of mana dorks. They are low cost and can give ramp, however they are incredibly vulnerable and are dud cards in the late game. Instead of mana dorks, I'd suggest shifting off of them towards mana rocks like Worn Powerstone, Arcane Signet, and Fellwar Stone. Artifacts are a lot stickier than creatures and more reliable vs destruction cards.

2. Board Wipes: I personally didn't think there was enough space in my deck for more than 3 boards wipes, but they are important. While Boompile says nonland permanents, it is unreliable at best, so I'd recommend swapping that for an O Stone.

3. Draw: You have 3 sorcery speed draw cards and one instant speed draw card. They are extremely situational card draw and, I believe, unreliable. The issue with them is that they are reliant on higher power creatures and/or multiple creatures. I would favor cards with more consistent draw power, such as The Great Henge, Elemental Bond, and Guardian Project which allow you to draw whenever you cast a creature card is much more consistent and can ultimately draw you a ton more cards than those one off spells. On top of that, the enchantment draw card you do use, Colossal Majesty, only triggers its effect with a power 4 or greater creature which you only have 7 (8 if your commander has 4 or more lands on the field) creatures that meet that requirement. I'd definitely cut that for one of my other draw suggestions. I'd also eliminate Regal Force, as its cost is entirely too high for how situational its draw effect is.

4. Tutors: If price isn't an issue, then Sylvan Tutor and Worldly Tutor are the way to go. If it is, then the choices you have are pretty good.

Let me know if you want any other suggestions, these are what I can think of at the moment! Here's a link to my deck build for anyone who is interested:

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Infinite Mana, Infinite Creatures

Commander / EDH zuharran

SCORE: 12 | 5 COMMENTS | 480 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS

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ClassicCox on Vaevictis, Landscape Warper (All Permanents EDH)

1 week ago

BPWyndon i don't run Warstorm Surge or any card that would make me win after Primal Surge has resolved, so i'd just kill myself with Elemental Bond draw triggers.

multimedia on ArahBo - Mon chat s'appelle Mitaine

2 weeks ago

Hey, nice semi budget version of Arahbo.

King of the Pride + Elemental Bond is an interaction for a lot of repeatable draw with Cats. The +2 of power is applied to Cats when they ETB therefore with King any Cat here who ETB will trigger Bond. Bond triggers when tokens are created and with King a 1/1 Cat token ETB as a 3/2 Cat which triggers Bond to draw.

This interaction is good with equipped Kemba, Kha Regent, Felidar Retreat, Brimaz, King of Oreskos or White Sun's Zenith. Many Cats have 2 power which means with any anthem such as Kaheera, the Orphanguard they get 3 power which triggers Bond. Garruk's Uprising is another option and trample is nice, but Cats consistently having 4 power when they ETB is more difficult then 3 power.

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Consider more tutors to get a Cat, an equipment, an enchantment?

• Eladamri's Call
• Open the Armory
• Idyllic Tutor

Several Cats have double strike including Raksha Golden Cub who can give all Cats the ability, but he's 7 mana. Giving any Cat the ability for a lower mana cost is helpful since Arahbo is a repeatable pump right away.

• Duelist's Heritage
• Fireshrieker
• Silverblade Paladin
• Ajani, Caller of the Pride

With double strike a creature who has an effect that happens when it does combat damage to a player can potentially trigger it twice. Can take real advantage of this with Feline Sovereign and Bloodforged Battle-Axe. Other ways to use this are too draw cards with Mask of Memory, Keeper of Fables, Hunter's Insight.

Good luck with your deck.

DankMagicianD on Angry Jellybean Parade

3 weeks ago

Elemental Bond has done a lot of work in my Omnath deck. Also I would recommend adding another board wipe, maybe Savage Twister?

multimedia on Welcome to Gishathic Park

3 weeks ago

Hey, nice Scroll Rack Invention :)

Some budget cards to consider adding:

• Sol Ring
• Command Tower
• Congregation at Dawn
• Forerunner of the Empire
• Quartzwood Crasher
• Ripjaw Raptor
• Garruk's Uprising
• Rhythm of the Wild
• Elemental Bond
• Orcish Lumberjack
• Faeburrow Elder
• Farseek
• Canopy Vista
• Cinder Glade
• Exotic Orchard
• Naya Panorama

Sol Ring and Command Tower are some staple budget cards in Commander. At TCGPlayer you can find Sol for less than $3 and Tower for less than $1. Congregation at Dawn is a good budget creature tutor with Gishath. Cast it the same turn you want play Gishath or the turn before to tutor for and arrange the top of your library with any three Dinos to cheat onto the battlefield. Forerunner of the Empire is a Dino tutor (puts the Dino on top of your library) and a repeatable enrage enabler when a Dino you control ETB.

Quartzwood Crasher is one of the better budget Dinos since it can be a repeatable source of Dino tokens since many other Dinos have trample especially with Ghalta. Crasher combines well with Garruk's Uprising which can be a repeatable draw source and can give all creatures you control trample. Ripjaw Raptor has a powerful enrage ability to draw a card when it takes damage. Rhythm of the Wild makes all creatures you cast uncounterable and it gives nontoken creatures when they ETB the option of haste or make it bigger with a +1/+1 counter.

With Orcish Lumberjack sacing a Forest you control can make four mana since you can tap the Forest for mana before you sac it which can be a quick way to ramp into Gishath or other Dinos. Farseek is two drop land ramp that can search for a dual land such as Stomping Ground, Canopy Vista, Cinder Glade. At TCGPlayer can get Vista and Glade for less than $2 each.

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Cards to consider cutting:

• Timber Gorge
• Tranquil Expanse
• Gruul Guildgate
• Selesnya Guildgate
• Blossoming Sands
• Nissa's Pilgrimage
• Font of Fertility
• Hunt the Weak
• Pounce
• Insult / Injury
• Gruul Keyrune
• Burnished Hart
• Ravenous Daggertooth
• Raging Regisaur
• Radiant Destiny
• Overgrown Armasaur
• Kinjalli's Caller
• Zhur-Taa Druid

Good luck with your deck.

CaptCreek on Xenagos: Party in a Can

3 weeks ago

CaptainKraw

Garruk's Uprising has been one of my favorite new cards in a while. At 3 mana it comes down early, and can draw you a card immediately as long as you have a beater out which makes it good at any stage of the game. Then it gives you that incremental value that plays with your big guys pretty well since they're all HUGE. All that and the fact it also gives trample is almost too easy to include. Basically a strictly better Elemental Bond and it's been really good for me.

On another note, I agree with you about Warstorm Surge. I've always found it to be a little too slow for my tastes and I always would rather just play a big beater to be honest. Terror of the Peaks has been such an overperformer since I decided to put it in, and I'm seriously considering dropping warstorm for something like Defense of the Heart.

Elder Gargaroth is another one that's been really fun to play around with. I'm almost thinking it would be a better Soul of the Harvest. I'm a sucker for drawing cards, and Gargaroth is super busted, especially when you double its power and give it haste. Basically guarantees that you at least get to attack and draw when you first play it, and that it's big enough that it's unlikely to die to blockers unless your opponents want to go out of their way to kill it. The other effects are just gravy, and the fact that it can draw when it attacks or blocks, AND has vigilance makes this thing another wall of text like Kogla, the Titan Ape and Questing Beast.

Grothama, All-Devouring is a fun include, cause it can be sort of political if you need it to be, or just a 20/18 beatstick. I normally treat it as a draw spell for myself though. You can play her, pump one of your other creatures, and swing it at Grothama to draw a crazy amount or sac it to Greater Good. You could also play it right before you drop something like a Blasphemous Act to draw 13 cards or even hit a fat Traverse the Outlands.