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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | 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 |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planar Constructed | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Rules Q&A
Fiend Artisan
Creature — Nightmare
This gets +1/+1 for each creature card in your graveyard.
, : Sacrifice another creature: Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost/mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Activate this ability only at any time you could cast a sorcery.
milohenry13 on
"Let them eat worms..."
8 months ago
MistaMint I don't even know where to start with your build. Your build is one dimensional and lacking real teeth.
Obviously, if you look closely, my curve is smoother and my payoffs are more impactful. You don't even run an alter. You don't run mana dorks. You don't run Sanguine Bond. Your instant and removal package has the essence of a C-squad soccer team. You have no Grist, the Hunger Tide *list* no Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools that actually do the thing you mentioned, a sac outlet and a repeatable body. Those creatures you mentioned don't have a sac outlet attached to them. Persistent Specimen is just a bad card. Your enchantments are bad... No Bitterblossom!? No Fiend Artisan!? No Grave-Shell Scarab?! Grave-shell does EVERYTHING and it. is. Flavor. If our two lists go toe to toe, my list wins most of the time simply because I have quality mana dorks.
Your list is just spamming +1/+1 counters.
I can get damage through, I can passively get aristocrat life-loss/gain through, I make use of Savra's life gain = loss for my opponents, AND I run an infinite damage combo that even SYNERGIZES with Savra.
And lastly... you're running gates?? Go ahead and take another quick look at my land package. I've been building decks since 95. I appreciate your obvious love for the game, but I'm sorry to say that I don't resonate with your overall construction philosophy. As I mentioned before, I think your build is lacking in real impact, an inability to respond to unexpected situations (where is your Imp's Mischief??), easily defeated by targeted removal and blowouts, and a very poor and terrible mana curve.
So... yeah.
DawnsRayofLight on
Squirrel Combos
9 months ago
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Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest goes infinite with Scurry Oak and Basking Broodscale with a sac outlet (Ivy Lane Denizen also goes infinite)
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Nuka-Cola Vending Machine + Academy Manufactor/Peregrin Took + Krark-Clan Ironworks/Grinding Station goes infinite
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Basking Broodscale + Tarrian's Soulcleaver goes infinite
Ygra, Eater of All goes infinite with camelia and Experimental Confectioner
Using the above to explain my adds:
ADD (16)
Phyrexian Altar/Blasting Station
Lively Dirge:helps to get cheap combo pieces
DROPS (need to drop a single card too to get to 100) 17
4x lands (this deck looks like it can run fine off of 30 if you add 4-5 0-1 cmc ramp pieces)
Cauldron Familiar (unless I am missing the combo piece for it in the list)
Craterhoof Behemoth: may be a bit win more. don't see it doing much
Gala Greeters: meh card
Gilded Goose: meh
Tireless Provisioner: could stay or go
Toski, Bearer of Secrets: don't know how aggro this deck is, seems more combo oriented
Damnation: probably between MHM and fallout you have enough wipes
Nature's Claim: good removal but probably good on that
Woe Strider probably fine on sac outlets
May consider Protean Hulk piles as well
SpammyV on MH3 Elves
11 months ago
You may be getting enough mana it might be worth it to borrow the tech from Legacy Elves and include a few Fiend Artisans to fetch your wincons.
PuritanPuree on
Amalia the Explorer
1 year ago
BioProfDude Thanks for checking out the deck!
I was actually just checking out the results of a big pioneer tournament that happened this past weekend to check how Amalia combo decks did and to compare lists. It actually did really well, taking 3rd and 4th, and it had a winning record against the winning deck, Izzet Phoenix. It was interesting to see that the most successful versions didn't even use Fiend Artisan at all (though a couple that made top 32 did), which was a bit surprising to me. Their sideboards also had a much more varied sideboard toolbox of 1-off creatures, which didn't surprise me too much, but I'm bad at sideboards, so I let other people figures those out, haha.
As for the suggestions, Selfless Savior actually did show up in basically all of the lists, usually as a 1-off. I was using Tamiyo's Safekeeping as a similar effect, but I'll happily trade them out for a good boy if that's the move. Selfless Spirit is a bit too tricky to play with in this deck since accidentally giving Wildgrowth Walker indestructible while trying to protect the combo while it's going off will draw the game, which is obviously not ideal. All of the top decks were also running Return to the Ranks, which I also found mildly surprising since I just assumed it'd find more use in a self-mill variant of the deck, which I'm not using, but they for sure know better than me. I'm assuming that Rally the Ancestors doesn't see any play both because of the sac clause, and because Return only costs 3 if I only need to get back 1 thing.
Thanks again for checking the deck out! I'll likely be editing the deck to reflect some of the changes from the tournament results shortly.
wallisface on Why Are So Many Recent …
1 year ago
DemonDragonJ sacrifice triggers have to be used carefully, and they were absolutely correct to make Fiend Artisan ability sorcery-speed. However whether these effects need to be sorcery or not rides heavier on the payoff rather than the sac itself.
I already gave you a bunch of examples earlier in this thread on abilities that are correctly only sorcery-speed. I would suggest going back and re-reading this thread.
wallisface on Why Are So Many Recent …
1 year ago
DemonDragonJ some good articles include:
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this very good one for getting a basic grasp of things to look for
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and this site in general which has a load of resources
I will say in general, even if the idea of instant-speed Fiend Artisan might ”sound awesome”, if the application of that idea comes at the expense of the game enjoyability overall, then it’s almost never a good idea. The game has a much bigger responsibility than just making an individual effect ”feel cool”.
Imo Wotc should continue to employ such tools as once-per-turn and sorcery-speed effects at a rate that continues to make the overall health of the game as strong as possible - they shouldn’t jeopardise the game for the benefit of a few cards.
DemonDragonJ on Why Are So Many Recent …
1 year ago
wallisface, it seems that you and I shall not be able to reach an agreement on this subject, so I do not see any reason to continue discussing it, further, but your assertion that limiting effects to sorcery speed is your opinion, not a fact, and, with as many members as this forum has, there must be, statistically speaking, at least one other user here who agrees with me, on this subject. However, I shall say that the example that you gave with Fiend Artisan sounds awesome, and that is exactly why I like being able to activate abilities at instant speed.
Also, I do admit that I do not have much knowledge about game design, so I definitely would like to learn more about it, so do you have any recommendations for what I should read?
wallisface on Why Are So Many Recent …
1 year ago
DemonDragonJ it's not just a case of "too powerful", its also a case of "bad game design".
In the case of Map tokens, allowing them to be triggered at instant speed would make the combat step a logistical nightmare. If a player (or, even worse, if both players) has a bunch of Map tokens in play and swings in combat, having those abilities instant-speed-triggerable will easily make that combat step take a massive amount longer, and additionally makes the entire combat interaction a massive gamble, as nobody will quite know which creature trades/beats what when the Maps are triggered (because they don't always add counters). So, in short, having Maps at instant speed creates the following problems:
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Creates unnecessary grind and slowdown to the game in a phase that is already often fairly action-packed.
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Adds chaos and randomness to the game in a way that strips away a degree of player agency and play-skill.
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Entirely removes the risk of activating the token, as you can always just do it in your opponents end-step instead of spending mana upfront. This leads to less interesting/intense gameplay.
In the case of Fiend Artisan, being able to sacrifice creatures at instant speed is already a strong effect, in that you can block a creature and then sac it, nullifying the attack while also getting whatever benefit you got from the sacrifice. In Fiend Artisans case this payoff is ridiculous, in that if used at instant speed would make it very difficult for your opponent to ever have a proactive attack (without having trample) while also buffing your board. Additionally, it falls into the same trapping of just removing any stakes from activating the ability - if you can always just do it in your opponents endstep then you remove any decision making from the game entirely.
If you can't see that these cards, and many, many others, need to be at sorcery-speed in order to maintain game-balance, decision-making-processes, fair-gameplay, and a consistent tempo/pace to the game - then that's on you. It might be worth doing so reading on what makes good game design (not mtg specific, just in general) to get a better grasp on why having effects be sorcery speed or once-per-turn is a good thing for the growth/playability of the game.
| Have (1) | metalmagic |
| Want (1) | XxSirKittehxX |