Excavation Technique

Sorcery

Demonstrate (When you cast this spell, you may copy it. If you do, choose an opponent to aslp copy it. Players may choose new targets for their copies.)

Destroy target nonland permanent. its controller creates two Treasure tokens.

Tokens

• Treasure

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
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (5)

Max_Hammer on Mathas, King of Politics

1 year ago

I had nothing to do this morning in class, so here you go, too many card suggestions.

Rewards for Good Boys

This section is for giving your best friend a reward for being awesome. While, y’know, giving yourself something too.

-Incarnation Technique, Creative Technique, and Excavation Technique all give you and a buddy a powerful effect. Of course, you’re getting the better end of the deal, but they can have cool stuff too.

-Benevolent Offering kind of goes along with that, too.

-Tempting Contract and Master of Ceremonies both give everyone good loot, but give you more.

-Flumph is great. It’ll trigger some of the effects in the section below when people attack you for a card, and it’ll make everyone your friend.

-Tenuous Truce is Flumph for two.

-Smuggler's Share is nice, since you’ll get just a little more out of giving everyone extra card draw.

-Jailbreak is excellent for only two mana and basically no money.

Don’t Stop Me Now!

This section is for discouraging opponents from messing with your effects.

-Revenge of Ravens and Oath of Kaya both do the same thing, more or less. You can see why they’d be nice, especially with goad.

-Cunning Rhetoric and Mangara, the Diplomat both give you extra card draw for your opponents’ hubris.

-Sivriss, Nightmare Speaker gives you extra draw every turn. Like, three cards worth. That, or it’ll be a lightning bolt to the face for someone, so you win either way.

-Sword-Point Diplomacy is kind of the vibe I’m going for here.

-Emberwilde Captain is more goad and works with your pre-existing Monarch card.

-Leyline of Combustion is always pretty fun, along with all of the leylines. Just super annoying, is all.

Take Two to Tango

This section is for cards that benefit you solely, but using the other two sections for leverage, you can get the most out of them.

-Magma Hellion and Lava-Field Overlord give you a big bad creature. That’s all, really. Not super scary, but they’re here.

-Bring Down, Gang Up, Deadly Designs, and Play of the Game are all good removal that other people can pay for and when there’s some big Emrakul threat on the board, people are usually pretty willing to spend to get rid of it.

-Mogg Assassin and Council's Judgment are both more removal, but less shaky ones. Just remember that Judgment can exile more than just one thing.

-Wake to Slaughter and Dredge the Mire are both resurrection spells and both very nice. Only problem is that an opponent has to pick for you. Just make sure that anyone willing to help will be given a high five and a 5/5 angel or something.

JANKYARD_DOG on Turning it Off and On Again

2 years ago

Alright, lets take a stab at this... no promises it's any good, closest to boros I've gotten is Mardu.

I see Karmic Guide but no reveilark. 13/14 out of 21 (dependant on red devotion) of your creatures have 2P or less. On second thought perhaps Hofri makes it overly complicated considering the exile clause is mandatory. speaking of power 2 or less, Welcoming Vampire could help keep gas in the hand, esp. if you can produce creatures on Each turn.

Valakut Awakening  ^Flip could be used to dig for combo pieces, or an early land. Also general removal can help deal with any pesky nuisances including planeswalkers such as Chaos Warp, Generous Gift, Reduce to Memory and too a lesser extent Oblation/Excavation Technique (opponents getting advantages, Ick!). There's also Angelic Purge if you need one of your exiled creatures back in the yard I suppose.

Oh, and in before 'why u no Boros Charm?'

Anyway, I hope you find some of this helpful at least. Sorry I cannot offer on what to remove... not my strong suit. Enjoy

twechsler on Messing with Lore

2 years ago

seshiro_of_the_orochi thank you for your suggestions. I am planning on adding Jhoira's Familiar because I think it will run very well in this deck. Thran Dynamo is another great one but I think I have a lot of mana ramp cards right now (about 16). In the future, I could swap that out for Burnished Hart or Excavation Technique as I think these are the worst mana cards right now. Similar story for Myr Retriever but I agree because he is very mana efficient. I have 9 cards for recursion not including osgir but I can definitely swap the myr in for Sun Titan or Refurbish. I know Lightning Greaves has some infinite combo ability because of its 0 mana cost to equip but I'll probably get the cheaper of the two unless you really think that its worth the extra dough. Once again thank you so much for taking the time to help me out.

MaltOMeal on Absolute Theocracy

2 years ago

Sup lobsternips!

As a baseline, you'll need to add lands, which I'm sure you know. Since you're making Treasure and Gold tokens in this deck you'd probably be good with roughly 34-36 lands, leaning more to the most mana color you'll need, say like a 25/25/50 split if thats what you're going for.

Creatures

- We'll cover your cards to include by type, so lets start with creatures. I like the Angels, Demons, and Dragons subtheme, if you were considering it I'd try and include Kaalia of the Vast if you can get your hands on one, otherwise just slim down on the tribal stuff, reaching too far into each different theme could result in inconsistencies and clunky play. I've been there, it sucks a lot. (Unfortunately, you can't run Shalai, Voice of Plenty since she has a Selesnya color identity)

• Key Angels you may wanna keep: Avacyn, Angel of Hope , Angel of Destiny , Angel of Serenity , Sunblast Angel , Lyra Dawnbringer , Eradicator Valkyrie .

• While I do like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Tariel, Reckoner of Souls they have a high mana cost as most good Angels do, while Tariel synergizes well with your strategy she does have that randomness factor and would advise a more reliable and consistent option. Gisela speeds up the game. As a player this is good and accelerates the game, but as an opponent my first priority would be to get rid of Gisela and that paints an even bigger target on your back.

• Restoration Angel is fantastic for your edict effects, at face value. You'd need to run flicker effects to really make it shine. Basandra, Battle Seraph seems really good, forcing people to attack is nice and it prevents players from casting anything in combat, however it means instant speed removal will be used before the combat step. This also stops you from casting spells in combat.

• As for Human synergy, I really like Teysa Karlov , Thalisse, Reverent Medium , Queen Marchesa , General's Enforcer and Fain, the Broker . All of them work very well with the token strategy, especially Teysa and Thalisse

• Things I wouldn't necessarily include are cards like Juri, Master of the Revue (as good as she is with Fling ), General Kudro of Drannith (incidental unless you go all in on the Human tribal strategy), Devout Chaplain (same reason for Kudro), or Dire Fleet Hoarder (basically a one time effect unless you jump through the Teysa hoop, yes it does give you a Treasure token, but at a cost of 2 mana and the creature dying).

• Things like Ruthless Knave , Pitiless Plunderer , and Impulsive Pilferer perform outstandingly well in terms of more bang for your buck in this case.

• As for Demons I really like the Archfiend of Depravity and Rakdos, the Showstopper , their mass sacrifice effects are wonderful, however Rakdos does effect your board heavily unless you play to his synergies, you wouldn't want Negan to die to his effect would you?

-When it comes to your Dragons, I think you hit the nail on the head, nothing I would really change or take out. Allows for Magda, Brazen Outlaw to have a decent outlet if you don't want an artifact.

-Finally, the other things you've got going. Dockside should just be an auto-include, albeit a heavy price tag, but if you can get one you should definitely include it.

• Dark Impostor , while mana intensive is still a decent mana sink that can function effectively as targeted removal. Definitely keep your edict creatures, they are super useful and trigger Negan, and thats what you want.

• Starnheim Aspirant is useful if you go super heavy into the Angel theme, but if you skimp on the Angel theme this could very often be a dead card.

• Storm-Kiln Artist , I like this a lot for this deck, can be a beater, and generates value.

• Vault Robber , seems bad, and bad to do. Synergizes with Magda and makes Treasure tokens, but thats really it... PLUS it requires you to have a creature in YOUR grave. I'd cut this, but if you have a reason to play it I'm not seeing immediately play it in your deck.

• Viscera Seer , good card, good sac outlet, not much else to say.

• Creatures I'd include based on what I've seen: Solemn Simulacrum , Burnished Hart and Mayhem Devil . Some good ramp and a decent damage dealer if you'd like to play a cheap one. Plus the Devil is great at just 3 mana.

Enchantments

First thing I wanna point out is the abundance of them, its good, but its quite a few. I like the variety of them though, from token generation to mana value, all of them are GOOD in a sense.

Angelic Renewal is basically a one time effect. While good, there are better recursion spells out there, but this one does fit the Angel theme so thats really cool. :D

Land Tax : Definitely play this if you want more inclusions in your deck and want to play less lands, but don't forget to have a focus on more basic lands for the landbase.

Luminarch Ascension is subject to removal by other players, and somewhat makes you a target, but with Divine Visitation and your non-Treasure generators make this super useful.

Aside from that, I think that's a decent spread of enchantments. Nothing to add really, love the inclusion of the Sagas and Revel in Riches .

• You could also put Martyr's Bond in for shenanigans, Hidden Stockpile for utility, or Flameshadow Conjuring for more token synergy.

• Flickerform is also a unique enchantment, but makes it doubly effective with edict creatures like Plaguecrafter .

• Shiny Impetus is good for token generation, but don't play a sacrifice creature to have that player just get rid of it, deceptively good and bad.

• The Eldest Reborn is also another good saga to include if you want another edict type effect, and when it does go off you can get what you want from players' graveyards.

Artifacts

I'm sure you'll add more later, but here are some I'd DEFINITELY include:

The three signets for your colors, Arcane Signet as well.

Goldvein Pick : hidden tRAESurES!!!

Inspiring Statuary for a low mana investment, you can effectively keep your Treasures around, or use your Gold tokens twice(tap it for colorless, then sac it for colored mana).

Panharmonicon to double up on edict effects.

Instants

Not much in this category outside of removal or token generation.

Wouldn't run Secure the Wastes strictly because it doesn't put Humans into play, play the sorcery option Martial Coup instead if you want a token creator with some OOMPH.

I'd recommend more removal, but with everything else considered I think you're pretty much good here. Really like the Crackling Doom and Vona's Hunger inclusions.

Sorceries

OOOOkay, lots to look at here.

• Approach of the Second Sun : Does provide you an effective way to win, very good card for a deck like this especially if the game goes long.
• Brass's Bounty . Love it, not much else to say.
• Contract Killing fits the theme and the flavor. Love it.
• Damnable Pact is good card draw for you, and useful against someone who flies too close to the sun.
• Debt to the Deathless / Entreat the Angels . While both good, is not something you want to draw into early game or open with. I would highly suggest playing less finisher cards like these, but if you wanna play em don't let me stop you.
• Killing Wave . Love it, super good.
• Necrotic Hex . Expensive, but great effect.
• Excavation Technique is actually a really good spell. Synergizes with Magecraft like WoTC intended and is deceptive for your opponents.
• Increasing Devotion / Finale of Glory . One of these is better than the other. I'll let you decide which is which.
• Heartless Pillage / Seize the Spoils . I really like both of these cards as spells and thematically. They work well for Negan and as spells for you to Pillage and Loot with as you please.
• Ruinous Ultimatum / Tragic Arrogance : Both are fantastic, especially as finisher spells. I'd make a point to include both so you have an option when you're ready to win(IE: Revel in Riches in play with a ton of creatures on board, its akin to vandalblasting with a lettuce on board).

Notable Lands

Mortuary Mire : Get that creature back in play!

High Market : Useful when Dictate of Erebos is in play.

Sanctum of Eternity / Command Beacon : You never know when you might need to use them. Negan can get expensive real fast.

That basically does it for my brief review, hope I was of some help!

DemonDragonJ on Kill them With Kindness

3 years ago

I have replaced Bramblecrush with Excavation Technique , because the latter card has a more lenient mana cost, it is usually better to be able to destroy a troublesome creature than a troublesome land, and the demonstrate ability can be used to gain favors with other players, which is a major strategy of this deck.