Fertile Ground

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant land (Target a land as you cast this. This card enters attached to that land.)

Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds one mana of any colour. (In addition to the mana the land produces).

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

SufferFromEDHD on [EDH] “You shall not pass!” {TurboFog}

3 days ago

Angelsong < Orim's Chant fogs ultimate form

Lull < Render Silent fog... for spells

Would this deck benefit from enchantment ramp like Utopia Sprawl/Fertile Ground instead of creatures like Lotus Cobra?

I see that Eternal Witness in the sideboard and kind of think it deserves a main board treatment. Holistic Wisdom? Definitely niche but something to chew on.

SufferFromEDHD on Enchantment Recursion.

2 weeks ago

Lose the artifacts add Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl and/or Fertile Ground. Possibly Stony Silence.

Extinguish All Hope > Blot Out

On Thin Ice, Oblivion Ring or Parallax Wave > Swords to Plowshares

legendofa on The New Commander Brackets Beta

2 weeks ago

I've been struggling with this for a couple of my decklists recently, and I'm trying to summarize my thoughts here without starting a new thread. So this is semi-stream-of-thought, and I apologize if it gets a little rambly.

There are several criteria being tracked by the current bracket system, including resource generation, speed, reliability, and oppression, and possibly others.

Game changers: A combo like Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact + Thassa's OracleGC gets a key card on the game changers list, because it's fast and reliable, ending a match on turn 3-4. These are speed game changers. Other game changers generate resources just by playing the game, like Rhystic StudyGC or Smothering TitheGC. This group often also includes oppression, since a lot of them tax the opponent. Another group is cheap (1-2 mana) tutors, like Vampiric TutorGC, Enlightened TutorGC, or Survival of the FittestGC, that increase a deck's reliability for very little opportunity cost. Most game changers can be sorted into one of these four categories. Ancient TombGC and Gaea's CradleGC are speed and resource generation, Drannith MagistrateGC and Force of WillGC are oppression, and so on.

Bracket Guidelines: From Gavin Verhey's announcement article, here's what each of the brackets mean and expect. Important to note that the system is still in beta testing, so this is probably going to be different in the future.

• Bracket 1: Decks with more focus on a gimmick than on winning. "Winning is not the primary goal here, as it's more about showing off something unusual you've made. Villains yelling in the art? Everything has the number four? Oops, all Horses? Those are all fair game!" This bracket doesn't allow extra turns, two-card infinite combos, mass land denial, or game changers, and restricts tutors.

• Bracket 2: Decks that can win, but are not tightly focused, or slow to develop. "While Bracket 2 decks may not have every perfect card, they have the potential for big, splashy turns, strong engines, and are built in a way that works toward winning the game. While the game is unlikely to end out of nowhere and generally goes nine or more turns, you can expect big swings." This bracket doesn't allow any game changers, mass land denial, two-card infinite combos, or multiple extra turns in a row, and restricts tutors.

• Bracket 3: Decks that are focused on winning efficiently, but are not optimized. "They are full of carefully selected cards, with work having gone into figuring out the best card for each slot. The games tend to be a little faster as well, ending a turn or two sooner than your Core (Bracket 2) decks." This bracket does not allow mass land denial or multiple extra turns in a row, and restricts game changers and two-card infinite combos, and allows tutors freely.

• Bracket 4: Decks that are optimized for their strategy. "Bring out your strongest decks and cards... This is high-powered Commander, and games have the potential to end quickly. The focus here is on bringing the best version of the deck you want to play, but not one built around a tournament metagame." This bracket has no restrictions.

• Bracket 5: Decks that expect to win at the most competitive levels. "There is care paid into following and paying attention to a metagame and tournament structure, and no sacrifices are made in deck building as you try to be the one to win the pod." This brackets has no restrictions.

Deck Analysis 1: The deck I've been struggling most with is Clear Waters. As I listed in another thread, it has an infinite turns combo (Wanderwine Prophets + Deeproot Pilgrimage + Merfolk Sovereign) and mass land denial (Opposition + Seedborn Muse, Quicksilver Fountain), and a selection of tutors to pull these together (Forerunner of the Heralds, Idyllic Tutor, Merrow Harbinger, Seahunter, and Sterling Grove). This should put it squarely into Bracket 4.

My concern is that it's neither high powered nor optimized. On the axes of speed, resource generation, reliability, and oppression, I would score it high on oppression, pretty good on reliability, and low on speed and resources generation. Looking at examples of other Bracket 4 decks around the internet, all four of those criteria need to be high in this bracket. The infinite turns combo is slow and easily removed, and the land denial is optional (Opposition can have other targets) or temporary (Quicksilver Fountain can remove its own effect).

It would be easy to simply add a big pile of game changers to improve all of these facets. Right now, it has one game changer in Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC, and that one's not essential to the deck. That's not the direction I want to go with the deck, though--I want to keep it reasonably budget, and even adding the three least expensive of the game changers I'm considering would basically double the deck's cost.

I know that people in brackets under 4 want to be able to play their deck, and the infinite turns and land denial shut that down. These are clearly stated in the announcement article -"A single extra-turn spell can be fun and splashy. However, extra-turn spells take a ton of time away from other players and their ability to play the game and tend to be unfun when repeated."- that's why they're forced into brackets 4 and 5. But if a deck isn't able to compete against high power, optimized Bracket 4 decks, can it be considered Bracket 4?

Deck Analysis 2: Another deck that I've been struggling with is an enchantment deck, Do Not Mistake Peace For Passivity. The point of concern for this deck is land denial. Blood Moon is classic mass land denial, and the deck is designed to play around it with Abundant Growth, Fertile Ground, Prismatic Omen, and similar cards. It also has a combo that doesn't directly deny lands, but punishes their play and use: Manabarbs + Citadel of Pain. Otherwise, the deck fits all the criteria of a Bracket 2 deck--no game changers, no infinite combos, few tutors, and no extra turns.

This deck can be converted into a pure Bracket 2 deck without much effort by replacing Blood Moon and Manabarbs. But as it stands, a single card pushes the deck up two brackets, according to the guidelines. Again, I don't feel the deck is high powered or optimized, and would not be able to compete in a Bracket 4 match. It could probably survive in Bracket 3, since it's highly synergistic, but nothing any higher.

In this case, adding a bunch of game changers and power cards would somewhat dilute how the deck functions. A few, like Smothering TitheGC or Trouble in PairsGC, could slot in, but most others would be more gratuitous.

Conclusion: To quote the article again, "There's some wiggle room, and while playing against decks that are all inside your bracket is ideal, you can usually wiggle within one bracket away from you safely." "You should play where you think you belong based on the descriptions." All of this can be discussed in a Rule 0 talk. I strongly believe the brackets are intended to help this conversation, not replace it. As an example, for the Clear Waters deck, I would say that the deck is not optimized to Bracket 4, and I think it fits best into Bracket 3, but it's controlling and has a potential three-card infinite turns combo. I'm willing to announce when the combo is assembled and ready to start, to give everyone a turn cycle to react, and reduce the use of Opposition to creatures and artifacts.

I feel like the current setup is a little too restrictive of the kind of combo-control decks I like. I can have fun smashing big creatures into each other and outmaneuvering everyone else, but I will enjoy locking down the board and establishing my inevitability, and I'm having a harder time trying to find ways to do that in lower brackets. Some people have already offered me excellent feedback and suggestions that I'm taking into consideration, but I'd also like to see how people are responding to the bracket system so far.

For comparison, here's a few more of my decklists:

• Bracket 2: But if you smash one helm...

• Bracket 3: Above such mortal concerns

• Bracket 4: Arrogant. Ruthless. Oppressive. Victorious.

kamarupa on Uren8

4 weeks ago

Oh boy. I have... uh... a lot of thoughts.

I'm going to start with ramp and mana base. I've been commenting something along these lines on a lot of decks lately. Ramp isn't much of a ramp if you're missing land drops regularly. Getting to, say 3 available mana on t2 is nice, but if you don't hit a land drop or dork on the next 3 turns, the ramp didn't really help. I'm generally not a fan of spells like Arboreal Grazer and even less a fan when there aren't a substantial number of lands in a deck to start with. At a mere 20 lands, you're going to be have to be very lucky to get both Arboreal Grazer AND 2+ lands in an opening hand. And even if you do, the likelihood of you continuing to draw lands just isn't very high. Basically, any effect that lets you "play an additional land" is just way too conditional to be consistent in my view, and therefore, I prefer to run with dorks and enchantments and rarely, rocks. You do have an enchantment that tutors you 2 lands, but at a pretty steep 4MV, I think it's going to function as much as a 'thinner' as it will a ramp spell. I do see some redundancy there with Prime Time, so I could see it be a useful spell. I should state that Prime Time isn't a creature I have much experience with, so I don't know much about what other spells synergize with it best, but I have a gut feeling that what you've brewed could have better synergy with it. It seems like it might be getting included because it's a well known and feared threat more than being a perfect fit. You also have Flare of Cultivation, which seems like your 3rd best ramp spell after your two dorks. While I like that you can cheat it into play, I don't like the required sac cost to do so as the only really good target is the Arboreal Grazer and that's just too conditional to be consistent. It's not a spell I have lot of experience with, and while I'm not a big deck thinner, I can't deny it has a lot of powerful potential. But I want more good targets for it, preferably ones that actually WANT to be sacrificed. The best part of your ramp is that you have 8 1MV dorks. Given your EXTREMELY high average MV of 4.35, I think 8-10 is probably the right number. To sum up, I would cut Arboreal Grazer and possibly reconsider both Prime Time and Encroaching Dragonstorm, either leaning into Prime Times most classically defined deck elements or cutting it. I'd try to find another 1MV creature for your Flare of Cultivation to target (6-8x 1MV non-dorks that want to be sacced) or I'd look for some other ramp choices. I'd also consider adding in something like Fertile Ground, or maybe Utopia Sprawl, as you do already have a good number of lands with the basic Forest type. If you do go for the Sprawl, then perhaps Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth might be a smart add. Finally, I'd like to see this deck reach for at least 22 lands if not 24. You've just got a hell of a lot of very high MV spells and these days I strive for 22 lands as my minimum. It's just more consistent.

Next, I want to follow up on some of what Balaam__ brought up - disruption. Disruption doesn't do much good in a sidebaord. It needs to be mainboarded or else your deck will not only end up unbalanced when sideboarding, but you'll also be tempted not to sideboard as much as you struggle to choose what spells to swap out of the mainboard. I believe almost all decks need at least 4x disruption spells in the mainboard, with 8 being best. Disruption comes in a lot of forms - counterspell is great, but I don't like tieing up mana playing the waiting game. Removal is classic for reason. Usually half of 8 disruption spells are a form a removal. Sideboards offer us different methods of removal so you can get past all the defenses opponents might use to prevent that removal. That makes sideboarding a lot easier to pull off, swapping removal for removal. I really like protection spells Heroic Intervention - while defensively, it can function like a counterspell, offensively it can do things counterspell can't. It largely comes down to preference, but disruption beyond removal is almost always essential. Of course, there's also discard, which is a solid choice, too, though I don't prefer it because it misses cards drawn after it's cast and so isn't as foolproof as a pre-emptive defensive play. I also like squeezing in 1x Fog spell when I can. I love the comedic flavor of it, but again, that's just my preference/sense of humor. Assuming you cut Arboreal Grazer, Flare of Cultivation, and at least a few copies of Encroaching Dragon Storm, even after adding 2x land, you should have room for at least 4x disruption spells in your mainboard. Incidentally, all these changes should also help bring down your average MV, which will make the deck not only faster, but more resilient as it will be able to respond to opponents.

One thing I do think you have right here is the number of creatures. But I'd like to see tighter choices that play off each other a bit more. I get that Prime Time and Flare of Cultivation support Ureni, the Song Unending, but at 3 copies and Legendary status, I'd want to solely focus on that creature or abandon that whole strategy - it's all or nothing with spells like that - run 4x of Ureni to maximize its odds it comes up when Breaching Dragonstorm when that hits. Maybe even look for spells that let you tutor it to the top of your library - Scheming Symmetry comes to mind, though I don't think that's exactly the right spell for this brew. Brainstorm might be a good option - not really a path to card advantage, but it would be useful in setting up Breaching Dragonstorm.

To return to Balaam__'s feedback, I also agree with him that Breaching Dragonstorm, especially at 5MV is too easy a target for opponents to thwart. I do think you've got enough ramp to hardcast some of your threats at least some of the time, but adding in a secondary (or even primary?) cheat-in spell would almost certainly make the deck more consistent. Elvish Piper, for example might be just as fast or even more consistent, though it wouldn't help with your big sorcery spells. Although I think this would be a significant departure from your current brew, Maelstrom Archangel would be a nearly identical backup to Breaching Dragonstorm. I'd probably go for 6-8 total "cheat-in" spells.

Overall, I feel like this deck isn't quite focused enough. It's not clear what it really wants to accomplish and doesn't seem completely committed to any one goal. At the same time, it also seems a little over-gunned - I sometimes say, "you don't need to bring a tank to a water-pistol fight to get a win" - when it comes to successful brewing, it's not the biggest threat that wins, it's the fastest fully effective one. So my broadstroke advice is to try to narrow the deck down to the core you really want to win with and try to support that core as much as you can.

I do love me some card advantage and I can see how Up the Beanstalk could have been useful here. As alternatives, you might consider Garruk's Uprising, Tribute to the World Tree, or even just plain old Harmonize

Sometimes I find I'll start a brew like this and realize I might have tried to squeeze 2 or more decks into one. It might be useful to fork this once or twice and explore different aspects in each fork. Make one with a lot more disruption mainboard, one with different ramp spells, one that really focuses on Prime Time, etc etc.

I hope some of this is helpful. I'm just spitballing off the top of my head. Don't take it as me being too critical. I'm really just throwing out the first thoughts that came to mind and I'm very likely to have missed nuances, etc.

kamarupa on pigs do fly

2 months ago

I love this concept of flying pigs. Absolute riot. But I want to encourage to try to make it as viable as possible.

For starters, I'd like to see Brindle Shoat get cut, because it's the only non-modern legal spell. Might as well go for legal since you're so close.

I'd also like to see non-boars get cut. There are enough boars and ways to make them fly. Perhaps the most obvious boar that's missing being Ilharg, the Raze-Boar. I realize red is an extra color, but most boars are within the gruul color set, so adding red opens a lot of doors. More importantly, Ilharg helps you get a lot of the high MV creatures into play, which seems pretty helpful.

Cliffhaven Kitesail seems like a good fit, being lower MV to cast, and more durable than an Enchantment.

I've never been much of a fan of Explore because if it's not in your opening hand, it's too common not to get to play an extra card, and 2MV is too much for a cantrip. 20 lands is def on the low side, too, especially with an average MV of 3.48, which is quite high. I suggest you go with Fertile Ground instead, which will ramp much more consistently and also mana fix. Alternatively, you could go with a slower ramp, but still get the cantrip (albeit at a high MV) with Weirding Wood. I also think you need to add 3 lands.

With how many high MV spells here, I think Fog would be useful.

I'd cut the way too high MV Emeria's Call for Heroic Intervention or Tamiyo's Safekeeping or Vines of Vastwood or Tyvar's Stand, etc.

I'd like to see 4xPath to Exile and also 2-3xHarmonize. It's going to be difficult to get everything to fit into only 60 cards, but I find it's generally really helpful to have at least 4x removal and at last 2x draw card.

kamarupa on Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels! (Squirrel Prison)

3 months ago

Fun stuff! I have some thoughts. I hope you find something useful, but no worries if you don't!

White is really where it's at with enchantments and the graveyard, namely Hall of Heliod's Generosity. I'd imagine if that were the only thing you needed white mana for, you could probably pretty often get by with a Birds of Paradise and maybe something like a Fertile Ground or Prismatic Omen. However, there are some other nice white spells that might prove just as helpful to you - Sacred Ground and Terra Eternal.

I don't play competitive MTG, but it's my understanding that in fast formats like Modern, you don't really need or even want repeatable/permanent solutions to threats your opponents might have. What we want are fast, efficient, and broadly applicable answers that buy us just enough time to gain enough advantage to win. So my advice - and do take this as a humble suggestion and not any sort criticism - is to forget the artifact defenses (and enchantments I mention above) and focus on having the mana available to cast your counterspells and/or add some low MV protection spells like Tamiyo's Safekeeping or Heroic Intervention and also a Fog/Holy Day or two.

I'd also say that while Drift of Phantasms is decent, I've come to prefer card advantage over tutors. It always seems like it too much to spend 3MV on a cantrip tutor that also reveals your threat. If you wait until you have enough mana to tutor a card, cast it, and have the mana to protect it for two turns, you're already looking at something like T10 without a synergized ramp in place. And that's probably just too slow for [competitive] modern. So, personally, and again, I'm not interested in competitive play, so feel free to ignore me, but I prefer spells like Harmonize for the card advantage and broader range of impact in getting me what I need, even if it is more of a gamble than a tutor. If you keep the artifact defense, you might consider Thoughtcast.

As much as I like what you're trying to do, I'd want an extra land or two, even with the Birds of Paradise. As little as I like it, I've come to believe 22+ lands is usually worth it, especially in a deck that's counting on casting multiple 3MV spells for their win-con.

I like a lot of things about Verdant Command, but I haven't found it useful enough in my little playgroup to warrant a full set in a mainboard.

My final piece of advice is to use the 'Copy Deck' feature here to make forks of this to try out things I suggested (and other ideas you might have). I find it so useful to have multiple builds of the same deck to playtest and compare what's really helping, what isn't, what's fun, what's slow, etc.

RufusTheGrufus on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

6 months ago

jsnrice, I'm wondering if maybe I worded the questions I asked poorly, since they weren't addressed. I'd love to hear more about your playtesting experience, as well as what criteria you're operating under to determine if a deck is performing too slowly!

As for your most recent card suggestions, I feel like they're missing the goals of this deck; have you read the primer? First and foremost this is an enchantment deck, so I'm prioritizing enchantments for my packages as much as possible. Secondly, I'm purposefully aiming for more of a grindy, mid-range build to focus on taking advantage of Anikthea's abilities. Slotting in two pieces of off-theme, artifact-based fast mana would not be appropriate for any of my goals for this deck.

As for your cut suggestions, Im a bit confused because at the very least Smothering Tithe is incredibly worth it in this deck; even in a faster/higher-powered meta. It's an enchantment, it makes tokens which this deck is already aiming to abuse, and it can both simultaneously slow down opponents who respect the absurd ramp potential of Smothering Tithe, while also helping my deck accelerate to a game-winning boardstate. I could totally understand arguments to cut Mirari's Wake and/or Shigeki, Jukai Visionary to slot in faster ramp options; if you're playing in a higher-powered meta. But even then I'd personally probably prefer more on-theme options such as Carpet of Flowers, Utopia Sprawl, or Fertile Ground. 

Finally, sincerely, thank you again for taking the time to comb over my decklist, offer your insight, and even playtest the deck. I truly appreciate it, even if we don't agree on card choices (which leads to one of the more fun aspects of this game; deck diversity)!

DreadKhan on Trample Under Foot

11 months ago

Neat idea, I love seeing people making Gruul work in Legacy!

I would run two more Utopia Sprawls over Rampant Growth, they aren't all that pricey anymore (ymmv of course). I'd even run a worse Utopia Sprawl like Blighted Burgeoning or Fertile Ground, either has it's own upsides, and both work very well with your Arbor Elf.

I think with x4 Arboreal Grazer you might consider at least a couple lands, Grazer feels awful when you're short of lands. I'm not sure how much you'd need, but 1 or 2 would be helpful IMHO.

Randomly, Gruul got one of the all time great ramp effects back in Ice Age, Orcish Lumberjack is epic ramp, great if you need to hit a Hulk several turns early. You might want something to prevent your Hulk from getting countered, maybe Rhythm of the Wild? The haste is also VERY good with Lumberjack, letting you drop it and tap it for 3 (though you do sacrifice the Forest) right away, dodging removal potentially. I personally love using Orcish Lumberjack with Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, this way you can effectively Sinkhole people in Gruul, and technically you'd have 1 mana left, even on turn 2. Some people don't fear land destruction and will keep a 1 land hand so it can work sometimes fwiw, and the cost is negligible (it's even a ramp spell if you hard cast it without Lumberjack).

How often do you end up with a decent land count? If you find you can actually hit 5 lands in a lot of games, you could throw in Crop Rotation and Temple of the False God x1, if you aren't ready for a Temple yet you can tutor up a Red source I guess, or a Wolf Run. I'd guess if you pull those Rampant Growths Temple x1 isn't worth bothering with. You could always do that trick with x1 Ancient Tomb, but those aren't as cheap!