Elvish Mystic

Creature — Elf Druid

: Add to your mana pool.

Discussion (51)

johnwayne1488 on Hapatra's Poison Ivy

3 days ago

update 07/07/2020

Switched Razaketh, the Foulblooded for Heroic Intervention

Razaket is really expensive and I find I have cheaper ways to tutor for what I need. Got Heroic Intervention in core 2021 so i'm gonna rock it to protect my board at a low cmc!

Flourishing Defenses for Hooded Blightfang

Flourishing Defenses is also expensive, I'd rather have just one Nest of Scarabs effect.

Whispersilk Cloak for Swiftfoot Boots

Yes, you can get damage through with Whispersilk Cloak and get Hapatra's trigger but I find that I don't really need to attack with her that much, I just need her to stay on the board and i can do that on turn 3 with the boots!

Puppeteer Clique for Animate Dead

Puppetee doesn't hit our graveyard for recursion sadly and even though you can get 2 creatures with that persist trigger, Animate Dead is just cheaper and hits every graveyard.

Rampant Growth for Elvish Mystic

Would rather play a turn one Elvish Mystic and a creature than a 2 mana (i'm casting hapatra on turn 2 for sure) spell I can't get back with Meren, Eternal Witness, Animate Dead or Victime.

Smothering Abomination for Liliana's Standard Bearer

I feel like I can benefit from the Bearer more, either by sacrificing my creatures or to answer a boardwipe for example. Abomination is good but it costs more and doesn't have that flash value

Epidilius on MagicalHacker - List of All Optimum Ramp

4 days ago

A rebuttal to your arguments against Mana Crypt: it costs 0 mana. That means you don't have to play it T1. If you have a sweet 4 mana play that will have a large presence on the board (say, Teferi, Master of Time), just hold it in hand until T2. You don't pull aggression from other players until you would anyway (in this case, from Teferi, Master of Time) and you don't start losing coin flips early. As for Mana Vault, it lets me play a 5 drop T2, and Vault with any T1 ramp that can immediately tap for mana can give you a 6 drop T2. If Sol Ring + Mana Vault lets me win the game on T2, then that is pretty good ramp. Having to pay to untap doesn't matter at all when there are so many ways to untap it for free.

Also, once you start bringing in personal experience, arguments kind of lose all meaning. I play a lot of mono or dual coloured decks, and I run Maze of Ith in pretty much all of them (also a respectable amount of artifact and land wipes). Unless your creature has hexproof and pro my colours, it will never connect. Between board wipes and spot removal, you would be better off playing Llanowar Elves, since you can run so many effective copies of it (eg, Elvish Mystic, Birds of Paradise, etc).

Also also, one of your stated rules is "Creature cards needing to attack". Does a Sword not break that rule, since it requires a creature to both attack and connect? At least Sword of the Animist just needs the attack trigger.

My personal opinion is that the most impactful plays are 4-6 mana. Being able to reach 4 mana on T2 and 6 mana on T3 should be a qualifier for "Most Optimum Ramp". I would rename this list to "Useful Ramp Cards". I do think this is a useful list, but I don't think it is a list of the best ramp, which the title claims it is.

About your last point, could you share that research?

Azeworai on Undying gift of Nel Toth

1 week ago

Alright. I am not too fond of graveyard strategies myself, though I have tinkered vehemently with Alesha, Muldrotha Adun Oakenshield, so I'll see where that gets me.

I see a strong value engine in the command zone, but far too much late-game in the ninety-nine. I would highly recommend cutting much of the seven drops, lest the deck be too slow betime on, thusly being trampled.

Furthermore, the deck needs more sacrifice outlets. With many death triggers comes a dire need to control when they go off, thence you should probably have at least seven.

Ideally, the gameplan is turn one or two ramp and cheap creature, then turn three Meren to return it to your hand.

Now, onto my suggestions.

Upon what I would ablate:

1. Korozda Guildmage is too slow. Four mana to sacrifice something is awful.

2. Overseer of the Damned is the same. Seven mana to kill something with a menial deathrattle.

3. terrastodon is eight mana. I have a deck with seventeen cards of ramp and it's still too much.

4. Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder may be an exquisitely perfidious character within the lore, hereon he is rather slow. Egregious stats and only lives so long.

5. I've never quite understood the draw to Yavimaya Elder. Three mana, then requires extra work to find two basics to the hand, whereat even further toiling is required to draw the card. I never liked it, but I suppose.

6. Phyrexian Rager is too slow, no matter how mad it gets.

7. Deathsprout is cute, but four mana to remove something whiles providing no value by being a creature.

8. Acidic Slime has always seemed lacking to me. You have Sage and Caterpillar to foredo artifacts or enchantments. A five-mana 2/2 seems lacking.

9. Sever the Bloodline is a four mana sorcery to kill one thing. If someone plays Kiki-Jiki or Mr. Gitaxias, whereupon their effects are immediate, this won't solve anything. Sure it flashbacks for seven mana, but the additional upside of the card isn't worth it in a singleton format.

10. Aid from the Cowl is a card I have tested withal. It's effect is slow, capricious, and ineffective. When it does work, it's five mana to maybe get something off of the top. I don't like it.

11. Diabolic Tutor and Final Parting are five mana to find one card. In a deck without infinite combos these are a lot less appealing. I'd put in cantrips instead.

12. So, Pathbreaker Ibex and Overwhelming Stampede. Each possess much dint, but I wouldn't play multiple. Pick one, move on. (I prefer the Ibex, though I'm biased.)

13. Thrashy is fine, but is four mana to kill something. Given the foison of similar effects the deck has, just remove it.

Okay, now unto thee I provide sacrifice outlets.

Altar of Dementia is literally perfect for a deck like this. Mill and death, all in one! Viscera Seer is a classic, Carrion Feeder can become massive, Goat Thing comes back by itself and offers caprine fodder, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is oft the best card in my aristocrats deck though is expensive, and High Market or Phyrexian Tower are always fine.

Blood Artist or Bastion of Remembrance are fine in strategies such as this.

Fauna Shaman seems absolutely great; Discard a dork, fetch a monstrosity, return aforesaid dork with Meren, celebrate.

Victimize is never lacking as it cheats out giants whilst providing sacrifice, Dread Return fills a very similar role, Eternal Witness is always great, Blood for Bones loops with the Witness, and Animate Dead is always great.

Now, cantrips: Grisly Salvage, Winding Way, Grapple with the Past, Ransack the Lab, and Once Upon a Time all filter through the deck, fill the graveyard, save for Once Upon a Time, and find lands or creatures. Furthermore, they are great with Meren, as creatures are to be disinterred.

For ramp, mana dorks are great. Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, and Elves of Deep Shadow offer fodder and acceleration. The best is probably Skull Prophet. Mill, fodder, and ramp in one.

Reassembling Skeleton just seems great, Bloodghast grants much, and Bitterblossom can be sacrificed a meiny of times.

Importantly, I add some more draw. Phyrexian Arena, Underworld Connections, Liliana's Standard Bearer, Erebos, Bleak-Hearted, Dark Prophecy, Moldervine Reclamation, and Rankle, Master of Pranks do this deed.

That shall be all from me. Good luck!

Torchic on Budget Dragons

1 week ago

If you want a small improvement that is cheap you could swap humble naturalist for Elvish Mystic which is a nice cheap upgrade.

ShadowAblaze on Aura You Ready?!

2 weeks ago

Given that you are playtesting this deck against other cEDH decks, I am going to assumer you are also building a cEDH style deck. This is sort of hard to do on a budget and will cost a pretty penny. I only am wary because your deck is only ~$400 right now. I am not a cEDH player but I do understand enough to make these suggestions...

For a cEDH build you want low 30's in lands. For example, some you would want right now: Gaea's Cradle, City of Brass, Mana Confluence, the fetch lands, and the shock lands. Almost no land can enter tapped in competitive (take out the temples). The ramp would include some rocks but also mana dorks because they synergise well with the Cradle. Examples of ramp: Arbor Elf (really good for enchanted forests), Llanowar Elves/Elvish Mystic, Noble Hierarch/Birds of Paradise, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Carpet of Flowers (this works because in multiplayer one player almost always is in blue and it is also an enchantment!), Chrome Mox, and Mox Diamond.

Two Bant cEDH decks on tapped out that I would look at for examples are The Bant Hammer [cEDH] and Estrid Stax cEDH. The Rafiq deck is very similar to yours and you could probably use from cards from that list.

If you aren't planning on cEDH, ramp is much more forgiving since games last longer more often. In that case I like creatures like Wood Elves, Yavimaya Dryad, Viridian Emissary, and Sakura-Tribe Elder because land destruction isn't as common and lands usually survive board wipes.

I hope this is more helpful!

GoblinElectromancer on How to ramp fast

2 weeks ago

Rampant Growth, Pentad Prism, Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Sakura-Tribe Scout, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and Arboreal Grazer are some.

Sultai_Sir on Dunno what to name this

3 weeks ago

Ah, a fellow Sidisi player! Your deck looks pretty solid. Since I assume you want to stay at the same power level and budget as your decklist, here are some suggestions:

• Mesmeric Orb: While it's a little on the expensive side, it works perfectly for this deck, creating you 10-30 zombies per game with noe effort. It also combos with Basalt Monolith, Seeker of Skybreak, and Aphetto Alchemist if you want to up the deck's power level.

Underrealm Lich: An amazing card, both for the card selection and graveyard filling. He's also hard to get rid of, and ensures you don't mill yourself out of the game. He does unfortunately nonbo with Lab Maniac, though.

• The Gitrog Monster: An absolute house in this deck. He will often draw you 3+ cards a turn, and his "downside" is actually a great boon, drawing you an extra card every turn. He also goes great with Ramunap Excavator, making his downside literally non-existant.

• Gravespawn Sovereign: I didn't know this card existed until recently, and boy am I happy someone pointed it out to me. This card is often reanimating 3+ bodies a turn, and can get some of your big bois, like Muldrotha, the Gravetide and Sheoldred, Whispering One.

• Mana dorks: I know that they aren't exactly the definition of fun, but you need them for the deck to function. You have a pretty bad curve, with your deck mainly consisting of 3, 4, and 5 drops. Personally, I prefer for my curve to consist mainly of 2 and 3 drops, unless you're on a reanimation theme. However, if you add in more ramp, this deck can become a lot more fast and consistent. Some classic mana dorks are Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, and Elves of Deep Shadow.

For posterity, here's my personal paper Sidis list: The Deck that Death Forgot. Hope this advice helps!

DasButch on Das FandLall

1 month ago

I have now made a kill with damage only from Elvish Mystic and Adventuring Gear LOOOL.