Flickering Ward

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

As this enters the battlefield, choose a colour.

Enchanted creature has protection from the chosen color. This effect doesn't remove Flickering Ward. ((Remember the acronym debt.) This can't be damaged, enchanted, equipped, blocked or targeted by anything of the chosen colour. Anything of the chosen colour attached to this immediately falls off unless it's Flickering Ward.)

{W}: Return this to the owner of this enchantment's hand.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	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

Discussion (46)

emask on Conjuring Up A Flying Army

4 months ago

Love decks with birds! List is 16 cards over 100 right now.

Since you've got blue, I love the cheap costed accessible cards like Pongify and Rapid Hybridization. Sinking one mana to remove something your opponent likely paid more for is pretty great. Condemn is good here as well. Flickering Ward is a pet card of mine that isn't played too much but can be quite versatile!

RufusTheGrufus on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

5 months ago

"That's just my 2cents, would love your thoughts.”

Oh boy, well I definitely have some thoughts!

“Creeping Ren - Yeah, it's definitely not as good as replenish. I suppose it depends on the amount of interaction/wipes in the meta and if you have enough card draw to bypass the grindy attrition.”

Yeah definitely, and on second thought it may be more appropriate to compare it to Phyrexian Reclamation. I'll probably have to playtest with Creeping Renaissance swapped in over it; I'm not sure yet which will be more cost intensive in the long run, and being able to hit different card types with Creeping Renaissance is really nice. I'm a bit hesitant though because it would dilute the enchantment count further and Phyrexian Reclamation is relevant way earlier in the game.

“Archon of Sun's Grace - It's nice, it makes tokens. For 4 mana, is there something better?”

Oh man, Archon of Sun's Grace is so much more than just a creature that makes tokens for four mana! Just In looking at it's stats, it's a ¾ with flying and lifelink, for four mana; which is an amazing cost rate. This list is pretty vulnerable to faster decks and/or decks with a lot of flying, so both the lifelink and the flying help keep me around till the mid/late game. On that same note, the tokens produced do the same exact thing. Because Archon of Sun's Grace triggers off of enchantments entering the battlefield, it's surprisingly easy to organically generate a game-winning number of tokens (either through combat damage or ping effects).

“Mindwrack Harpy - 4 mana, mill cards. I feel that there are other cards that can mill. I get it's an enchantment creature, I just wonder how impactful it is.”

Maybe it's just my playgroup in particular, but having flying creatures in a deck feels incredibly impactful on it's own. Like you've pointed out, it's an enchantment, so it will trigger the significant number of cards that care about enchantments that are built into this list. Additionally, it doesn't just mill yourself and provide you with more card selection for Anikthea's ability, it also mills each opponent. With just one Mindwrack Harpy, your opponents will likely be irritated and disrupted, but with a plethora of Mindwrack Harpy copies (which this deck is capable of doing!) you're also threatening to take players out of the game. It definitely has downsides in that it can assist other players who are also playing with their graveyard; but the fact that it happens on your turn helps balance that out a bit.

If I were to cut Mindwrack Harpy I'd want to slot in a similarly efficient, enchantment-based piece of card advantage. Flickering Ward could be interesting since it also doubles dips and acts as protection, but the card advantage efficiency is nowhere close unfortunately.

“I feel like in EDH, you are going to have a lot of stuff in your GY regardless."

Sometimes you will, sometimes you won't! There's so much variance just within a single deck, let alone across 4, that I wouldn't say it's guaranteed. And even then, I would rather be reliant on my own methods of getting cards into my graveyard, during my turn, rather than waiting for my opponents to interact with me in some way. For decks that rely on using their graveyard it's really important to be able to control when cards are put into the yard, rather than just passively waiting for your graveyard to fill, since graveyard hate is plentiful and easily accessible.

“Mirkwood Bats - As a finisher, do you need the redundancy? It cost a lot and without the setup doesn't seem too impactful.”

Mirkwood Bats I don't feel as passionate about but man, you really don't want me to have any flyers lol! The setup for this card is literally baked into the deck’s packages; and you wouldn't play any wincon cards before you're set up anyways (e.g., casting Craterhoof Behemoth with no other creatures)! Mirkwood Bats wasn't originally on my radar but eventually got added to this list back when I was more heavily playtesting it.

Because this list allows for a ton of tokens to be produced, oftentimes my turns would get obnoxiously long without being able to close out the game. Mirkwood Bats allows me to capitalize on tokens the second they're produced, as well as when I sacrifice them (which is way more rare, but definitely comes up).

In terms of redundancy I'm actually worried I may not have enough of these effects, but I also don't want to convert the list fully to an aristocrat build. I would not say that having four ping effects is redundant in a 100 card deck and, while I have various tutors to help mitigate that; I haven't found myself with an excess of pingers when playing this list (so far at least!).

RufusTheGrufus on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

5 months ago

Profet93,

Thank you for checking out the deck and offering suggestions!

I unfortunately have not been able to play very much EDH as of late, (and admittedly my playgroup was getting a bit burnt out on Anikthea!), so I've added your suggestions to the Maybeboard for now.

I like the idea of Flickering Ward acting as repeatable, flexible protection. However, aura enchantments are a bit of a nonbo with Anikthea's ability; and I'm prioritizing instant speed protection options in this build.

Creeping Renaissance is another interesting option, and I'm still not sure if this build needs more recursion or not. I do have some reservations with Creeping Renaissance specifically as it would essentially operate as a worse, but repeatable Replenish. It could definitely serve as a budget replacement though; and I'll add it to the relevant section of the primer!

Finally, are there cards in my current build that you were thinking could be good swap outs for your suggestions?

Thank you again for taking the time to look at my list!

Safaridor on Dawn of the First Day

5 months ago

I have been a huge fan of this project for years. I always wanted to ask what your thoughts were on adding Flickering Ward into this deck? It always just felt great in the groups I played with. But the deck has always felt so tight.

Profet93 on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

5 months ago

RufusTheGrufus

Flickering Ward?

Creeping Renaissance?

DreadKhan on Anax and Cymede, Spell Slinger

7 months ago

It's always cool to see how someone solves the Anax and Cymede puzzle! They end up being a better Commander than people expect, especially if you can generate a board to benefit from his buff (and you can trigger them a few times).

I have an A+C list, I use Crown of Flames and Flickering Ward to generate A+C triggers, as well as trigger other cards. In that list I use the few creatures that care about enchantment ETBs (so Mesa Enchantress, Kor Spiritdancer, and Sram, Senior Edificer, but I also found Gandalf, White Rider pretty handy, Scry isn't as good as Draw, but he's easy to trigger and buffs my whole board each time, which stacks with A+C's triggers! FWIW it's easier to find an Aura than it is an Instant/Sorcery in Boros (Sunforger is a bad card IMHO, but some people swear by it). I value these Auras so highly I almost always hold up mana to bounce them in a pinch. I almost never tutor for it, but I also run Ghitu Firebreathing, it's a got Flash, which means for every 3 mana you can pump into the effect you can pump your creatures not just on your turn, but also in preparation for blocking. It's niche I admit, but there are only so many playable Auras that bounce themselves for cheap!

I'm not sure if you're interested in equipment, but Inquisitor's Flail plays pretty well with A+C's First Strike and Vigilance, and it stacks with other doubling effects like True Conviction/Spectacular Showdown. Two-Handed Axe is great for A+C, if you have 7 mana you can swing in at 8 power with Double Strike with no other support!

If you want to take a look at my A+C list, it's Staxdrop! (Snowdrop Vorthos Deck), it's a Vorthos deck so it has some unusual elements like hard Stax effects and numerous board wipes, so that part might not be relevant to your deck!

SufferFromEDHD on Anax and Cymede 3, lets upgrade the deck

7 months ago

Crown of Flames > Dragon Mantle

Flickering Ward the white version

SufferFromEDHD on It's Blurring It's Fading

10 months ago

Flickering Ward