Ertai, Wizard Adept
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Ertai, Wizard Adept

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

(2)(Blue)(Blue), Tap: Counter target spell.

Recommendations View more recommendations

Bag Check
Ertai's Trickery
Hisoka's Defiance
Laquatus's Disdain
Busted!
Counterbore

legendofa on Blue tribe/typal commander deck

5 months ago

Merfolk and Wizards have some good options.

Svyelun of Sea and Sky comes to mind for Merfolk (if you can pronounce it), and Kopala, Warden of Waves and Emperor Mihail II are also good. Merfolk tend to be tempo-based with wide attacks; they can set up with lots of tokens and land control. A particular specialty is "flooding" lands into Islands to take advantage of islandwalk.

Wizards tend to want instants and sorceries, particularly card draw and counterspells. They have more of a control focus. Naban, Dean of Iteration, Naru Meha, Master Wizard, and Azami, Lady of Scrolls all interact with other Wizards, while Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, and Ertai, Wizard Adept focus more on the control angle (but are also somewhat higher budget).

Lord_of_Cardboard on What gives more Magic than Wizards?!

2 years ago

Ertai, Wizard Adept. Reliable counter, as what is mono-blue without counterspells?

MULRAH on Cockatrice Commander Cube

3 years ago

Commander Updates Since July 2021

I added new commanders to the roster of options under the Player Profiles. They include:

Several new commanders work with tokens:

As a theme, tokens have felt well supported in the cube so far, even though I did not do so intentionally. As a result, I don't anticipate making changes, but it could be that I work to support this theme more fully or concentrate it in BGU, in case the new +1/+1 counters theme does not work out.

Some commanders moved out of the "high power" tier. Most dropped to "mid power," but a couple are now deemed "fringe competitive."

Unfortunately, most of the partner commanders I'd included were moved, so you're stuck with one of the handful of 4- or 5-color commanders if you're looking to maximize the flexibility of your deck's color identity.

blueiris on Kumena, Just Tap It In

3 years ago

Hello, Pheardemons!

Thanks for the comments and feedback. As you can see, I've used a few elements that were inspired from your build, such as the wizards Ertai, Wizard Adept , Venser, Shaper Savant , and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir . I also like the options that the transmute cards bring to maximize potential playability, so great additions with Drift of Phantasms , and the others.

I feel Defense of the Heart can be a really good pace keeper. I find it especially useful combined with Tishana, Voice of Thunder & Jungleborn Pioneer to generate three bodies and draw a minimum of three cards. But, yes, this is also great opportunity to seek out situation based creatures!

Cauldron of Souls is a new addition, so I'll have to follow up. I saw it in another list and liked the idea of preventing a board wipe simply by having a lord in play, but it may end up being too niche for 5 mana and the necessary setup. Also, artifact removal can make quick work of the cauldron , so is it just a sitting target until its potentially used? I'm talking myself out of this one it seems.

I really just want Herald's Horn to work, so it stayed in the list despite any reservations. Is it ramp, is it tribal, is it card draw? I think the sum of all it's parts fit in the list, and only at a cost of . It certainly plays well with Arcane Adaptation & Maskwood Nexus . Sylvan Library also has some synergy to fix the top card with its scry ability, so I guess I'm tooting my horn .

My intentions with Realmwalker are similar to Herald's Horn by allowing top card play/view. Plus, when combined with any of the flash options in the deck it can make things exciting. I think Realmwalker has performed well for me and it's here to stay. Also, an added benefit is that neither card require that you reveal reveal anything to your opponent when peeking.

For removal, I've used Curse of the Swine over the years for flare, but it's ultimately become a staple for me. Sometimes there's only a couple intrusive baddies to remove, and this makes quick work of them. I'll definitely take your advice and use Reality Shift over the non-exile removal, so thanks for pointing that out.

Darting Merfolk pairs with Intruder Alarm to be quite abusive when you have Kumena and a few fish to play with. Tap three fish (even including Darting Merfolk ) to draw a card, pay to return Darting Merfolk to your hand, then recast to untap all fish. Rinse, repeat. I'm not sure there's too much more, but with the appropriate resources it can be pretty powerful.

I've done okay with the colorless lands so far, but it's definitely something I'll need to watch closely. I just added Yavimaya Hollow , so maybe it's a good idea to remove something else colorless in exchange.

I agree with you about Genesis Wave . Honestly, I only avoided the card so I didn't completely plagiarize your deck ;) I'll take your recommendation and add it now! Overall I felt like I could run fewer counter spells and more removal in this package, so this is an excellent inclusion.

Regarding the one drops, I've rethought that comment after your response and it makes sense to stay focused on the combo aspect of this build. Solid advice.

Thanks again, and I appreciate the insight!

Tzefick on None

3 years ago

wallisface It's a restriction in the 99 so he wont just be in every deck for being a colorless exile-machine that also has a hindrance toward enemy mana rocks.

It's true you can still run him as your Commander and have your 99 be almost exclusively mono green ramp, just to get him out on the field. However in his current iteration he would slow down colored mana rocks and start blasting a singular permanent/spell every round. That's not in itself a very game winning strategy, so it falls flat if that's all you do. The effects are still very powerful, but not by itself a win condition.


If you remove the tap requirement from the active ability, your mana count is the restriction on how many permanents/spells you can exile per round. Throw in a Seedborn Muse and no one likes you anymore. It's not a very fun experience when he can sit in the Command zone.

I see that you rectified in your later comments to show that there needs to be a limit on the exile ability. The simplest solution to allow him both be in combat and use his ability could be to grant Ugin Vigilance, so he can attack freely and be ready to blast something - while also having the option of just staying back to blast something. I think it would be a mistake (or rather a nerf) to tie it with an attack condition. That would remove the ability to reactively exile a spell on the stack or a nonland permanent on the board - especially on an opponent's turn.

As for how people deal with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger : it takes two permanents out when cast and that's pretty much the end of it, until something makes it possible for the owner to cast it again - which generally only happens when it is exiled itself while being a Commander or if it is played in the 99 of a self-bouncing deckshell. Ugin's exile as an active ability has a much higher ceiling and it can hit spells. So if not kept in check Ugin could just dominate the board singlehandedly. Also there's still a significant difference between 8 and 10 mana in a single burst.


I think I read MagicMarc's comment on turning any land into Wastes and didn't see that you only had it hit nonbasic lands. Anyhow a Blood Moon effect would be more manageable, but I honestly don't know if Ugin needs the boost. Also Blood Moon is symmetrical - whereas Ugin doesn't even hit your lands, and wouldn't much care either way with his chromatic mana ability anyhow.


And like plakjekaas mentions, colorless can acquire similar ramp potential as green, but in magical Christmas land, they can acquire it MUCH faster.

Turn 1: Ancient Tomb into Mana Vault into Mana Crypt into Sol Ring into Grim Monolith into Ugin. All on turn 1. Turn 2 you can cast Unwinding Clock to just make your opponents scoop even faster. Granted, wallisface's version that can gatling gun exile nonland permanents does not exile spells, so there is a chance to deal with Ugin if you somehow get the appropriate mana in basic lands to cast a board wipe or Diabolic Edict - as colored mana rocks will just be wiped with Ugin before you get to untap. The Ugin player does kinda need a way to increase Ugin's power to hit 21 Commander damage faster, but from there it's just a grinding battle. If the opponents manage to deal with Ugin, he'll likely just come right back the following turn.

I don't think this is a good goal for creating new cards. Not everything has to be cEDH worthy. The card as it is in the OP is strong but not dominating, and I think that's fair. Switching the nonland permanents opponents controls tap for colorless to a one-sided, colorless Blood Moon is probably acceptable. Making Ugin fully colorless will only make the card more problematic for Commander as everyone can suddenly include a Legacy Weapon + Ertai, Wizard Adept on a protected body.

Vash13 on List of EDH counterspells

4 years ago

Power Sink, Spell Blast, Dovin's Veto, and if were throwing creatures in there Brine Seer, Diplomatic Escort, Disciple of the Ring, Disruptive Pitmage, Ertai, Wizard Adept, and Mundungu are just a couple not to mention the plethora of sac to counter creatures, this list is a good start but maybe 100 or so cards short, thank you for starting this list tho +1 from me

omega1563 on Azami's Wizard Gang

4 years ago

Planned Changes:

DemonDragonJ on Tolaria Reborn

5 years ago

I only recently have begun to appreciate how great utility lands (i.e., lands with abilities other than mana-generating abilities) are, which is quite surprising, considering that I have been playing this game since 2003. I also have noticed that there has not yet been a land with a counterspell ability, so I am creating one, now:

Tolaria Reborn Show

I am fully aware that having a repeatable counterspell ability, especially on a land, is very powerful (as seen on creatures such as Ertai, Wizard Adept and Ertai, the Corrupted ), so I have three measures in place to balance its power: first, the land is legendary, so a player cannot control multiple copies of it; second, it enters the battlefield tapped, so that it cannot be used immediately; third, its ability has a high cost, so that its controller will need to be absolutely certain that they wish to use it.

What does everyone else say about this? What do you think of this card?

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