Frantic Search

Instant

Draw two cards, then discard two cards. Untap up to three lands.

Discussion (48)

multimedia on Your Local Aquarium

1 month ago

Hey, well done on a low budget, nice flavor of sea creatures.

Consider expanding on looting? Looting is draw and then discard.

• Windrider Wizard : repeatable loot by casting an instant or sorcery and it's a flying creature for Octavia's magecraft.
• Frantic Search
• Windfall
• Thought Scour
• Mental Note
• Strategic Planning
• Chart a Course
• Compulsive Research
• Key to the City : can make Octavia unblockable until end of turn.

A reason to play more looting is to have more instants or sorceries in your graveyard for Octavia. Another reason is Wonder which is a card you want to discard and when it's in your graveyard and you control an Island gives all your creatures flying especially Octavia. Pair the flying effect of Wonder with Stormtide Leviathan who's a big sea creature upgrade. He makes all nonflying creatures unable to attack, but Wonder gives all your creatures flying.

Whelming Wave will consistently wreck your opponents creatures and not bounce your creatures including Octavia. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet are staple budget mana rocks in Commander. Kefnet's Monument reduces the mana cost all of your blue creatures and each time you cast a blue creature you get to tap an opponent's creature who could be a blocker.

Sea-Dasher Octopus and Thought Sponge are some small sea creature upgrades. Deep-Sea Kraken is another budget big sea creature upgrade. It's ability to remove time counters from itself whenever any opponent cast a spell is good in multiplayer Commander.

Good luck with your deck.

TriusMalarky on Thought Flare and Niv Mizzet …

1 month ago

Thirst for Meaning and Thirst for Knowledge are both incredibly good cards, and if I know EDH I assume you're running at least a couple mana rocks and one or two enchantments you thought were cool. They also only cost 3 mana, which is great.

Additionally, Frantic Search is great to dig really fast, especially if you have a land that taps for multiple mana. Faithless Looting is just great, Brainstorm is a no-brainer, and there's a couple affordable wheels in Windfall , Wheel of Misfortune and Day's Undoing .

MagicMarc on Turbo Frog Mk IV

1 month ago

Hello, I saw your post about the deck and wanted to make a couple of suggestions.

You have some cards I think are of dubious value in your deck and would like to suggest removing them. You should delete the following cards; Thought Scour This card adds nothing to this deck's game plan. Spore Frog . Cut these and replace them with Empty the Warrens . Empty the Warrens can make blockers, increases your storm count, and can storm for even more goblins.

I also feel I have to make the obligatory mention about some of the better turbo fog and storm creatures you could replace them with; Augur of Bolas , Guttersnipe , Sprite Dragon , Snapcaster Mage and Electrostatic Field . If you really need to have a creature, make it a 4 of any of the creatures I just mentioned. But dump the frogs. If you really think fog effects are your answer then cut them for Haze of Pollen . Haze at least can raise storm counts or be cycled when the battlefield does not have serious threats in play. And the frogs would be gone.

Cut Nature's Spiral . It is too narrow and does not advance your win condition. I am also not happy with your enchantments either. I think I see your game plan using them but they hurt your odds of Storming off on your opponent and really only hurt yourself by slowing down your deck. I would cut Gaseous Form for sure. And suggest cutting Abundant Growth . I would replace these with copies of Echoing Truth and Growth Spiral . Both of these cards do the same thing those cards do in the short run, then they raise your storm counts and help win the game in the long run.

Your deck is missing two things that help turbo decks and burn/storm decks. Card advantage and mana rituals. Consider these cards when thinking about what to replace your cuts with or consider making room for some of them; Desperate Ritual , Pyretic Ritual , or Manamorphose . If you plan to keep Abundant Growth in your deck then these rituals have lesser value but I would consider dumping the growth for a playset of one of these or more depending on your card count. They up your storm count and provide the mana to cast more cards in the same turn adding even more to your storm counts.

For card advantage, consider making room for the cards like these; Opt , Sleight of Hand , Serum Visions , Pieces of the Puzzle , Behold the Multiverse , Brainstorm or Frantic Search . Some of these are cheap to cast with a small return but will really accelerate the deck and raise your counts. The bigger cost ones have bigger payoffs for card advantage but will make slower turns. Some other cards to consider are Browbeat , Risk Factor and the blue jump-start card Chemister's Insight . You don't see Risk Factor or Chemister's Insight in competitive decks as much but they are both good alternatives that can keep providing advantage or damage. I would consider adding 4-8 of some of these cards to give you card advantage and help refill your hand for bigger storms.

Two more suggestions that may have a place in the deck; Silundi Vision  ^Flip can replace a generic island while letting you dig pretty deep to find one of your win conditions. You may even consider adjusting the mana base to make room for maybe even 2 of these.

Consider adding Past in Flames to the deck. This card really increases the chances of a win especially during long games by letting you replay all of your burn spells from the yard. It needs a big mana investment but it can finish a game depending on the state of your graveyard. I would seriously consider replacing two copies of Call to Mind and/or Nature's Spiral with a total of 2 copies of Past in Flames . I would keep it at two copies, it does need a big mana state to really work out for you and going to 3 or 4 copies will hurt the deck instead of help it.

Lastly, consider going to 4 copies of the good cards you already have in the deck. You should raise the counts of Lightning Bolt and Shock to 4 each for sure. I would also consider dropping copies of Fog to raise your counts of Moment's Peace . Generally, if you do need to fog the field it will happen later in the game so the mana cost is not as big a burden and the flashback makes them awesome.

IsThisWolfe on Vadrok and Roll

1 month ago

Daedalus19876, thanks for the feedback, your list was also one of the ones that inspired me to actually build Vadrok. I did see Malignus in a few lists buuut in my playgroup I feel he’d be removed instantly. IMO I feel Dream Trawler covers the damage output of Malignus and protection of Stormsurge Kraken .

Frantic Search : This one is already in the list, def a amazing card

Curfew : You make a compelling argument I’ll be swapping this in

Deflecting Swat : I did want to include this originally, but I can see where it would be better in some cases over a counter so I’ll add this in

Grinning Ignus : Also a card I wanted to include, idk what it is but [[rootha, Mecurial artist] is just cool, buuut yeah, I do agree]] Ignus would see better plays

Mystic Reflection : Wait what?!? How do you do that? I’m guessing mutate Vadrok onto Ignus -> mystical reflection on the pile -> creature -> bounce pile to hand so no sac -> mutate Vadrok on copy, trigger, cast reflection targeting pile -> cast Ignus and repeat??? Also I did see in your list how you can use it for removal so I’ll find a spot for it

Silence and Grand Abolisher : I would prob add Teferi, Time Raveler over Abolisher just because Vadrok can recur him, silence is a solid maybe

Hedron Crab and Brain Freeze : the only reason I didn’t add these was because I’m trying to build my decks winconless, like the loops and infinite combos in the deck consist of cards that would never be dead in hand, I just feel these two would be bad draws if I’m not going to combo

This definitely helped, thanks for the feedback!

Daedalus19876 on Vadrok and Roll

1 month ago

This reminds me of my first draft of Vadrok! I built him as voltron at first -- I will say that Stormsurge Kraken is an amazing mutate host if you're going for that Voltron win. Malignus , too, but that's pretty obvious ;)

I'd highly recommend Frantic Search -- it's an amazing feeling to cast it off of Vadrok and regain most of your mana, and it goes great with High Tide and/or Underworld Breach. I really like Curfew over Run Away Together , since Run Away Together doesn't work in the infinite Dockside loops (because your opponents eventually run out of creatures). If you're going for the protective spells, Deflecting Swat is an all-star. I'm not a fan of Arcane Denial , you could swap one of these for it.

I'd also recommend Grinning Ignus over Rootha, just because you can pull off some silly loops with it. Doubly so with Mystic Reflection -- because Reflection copies the whole pile, you can use Reflection + Ignus + Vadrok to staple like 20 copies of Vadrok's ability onto the same creature haha.

Finally, careful with that infinite Dack Fayden line: your opponents will draw into all their deck's interaction. So unless you've cast Silence or Grand Abolisher beforehand, you can get blown out. When feasible, I prefer to infinitely recast Reality Shift to deck my opponents, with a similar loop :) Oh, and Hedron Crab and Brain Freeze are all-stars.

Hope this helps! :D It's great to see more Vadrok players running around...

TheVectornaut on Blue/Black Beginner Deck

2 months ago

I think this deck is really well-positioned to become a "draw-go" style control deck that plays instants and flash creatures on others' turns. Pteramander , Augur of Bolas , Brineborn Cutthroat , Threnody Singer , Vodalian Arcanist , Naiad of Hidden Coves , Wavebreak Hippocamp , Murmuring Mystic , and all of your instants (save for the likely too slow 4 mana ones) already fit in such an archetype to at least some extent. The horse fish is particularly insane as a card draw engine, and I'd try to get a playset of it if you can. Stacking them to draw even more cards with Nymris, Oona's Trickster , Baral, Chief of Compliance , Slitherwisp , etc. would also make Ominous Seas more viable, possibly even supplemented by draw payoffs like Chasm Skulker and Nadir Kraken .

Some other options that care about flash might be Cunning Nightbonder , Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir , Leyline of Anticipation , Torrential Gearhulk , and Mystical Teachings .

For more generally good instants, Counterspell , Mana Leak , Countersquall , Frantic Search , AEtherize , Vapor Snag , Rewind , Cryptic Command , Opt , and Brainstorm (if you're playing with the legacy banned list) are options of varying budgets and power levels for a control deck.

The first cards I'd cut would be anything with suspend or that applies keyword ability counters. I think some amount of counter manipulation would be needed to maximize the value from such cards (with Clockspinning , Jhoira's Timebug , Paradox Haze , and Nikara, Lair Scavenger being a few things that come to mind). Then, I'd cull any sorceries or creatures that would take up all your mana on your own turn for minimal impact. Dead Revels , Frost Lynx , Alirios, Enraptured , and so on.

Sorry it took me a while to submit this after seeing the deck get posted earlier this week. Let me know if you have any questions and good luck with your build!

multimedia on Izzet Prismari Copy Storm

2 months ago

Hey, well done on a budget for your first Commander deck. I'm having fun with Veyran with Kalamax, the Stormsire .

You have 111 cards which is too many. Cards to consider cutting to get to 100 cards:

• Temple of the False God : you don't have any land ramp, only relying on land drops to get five or more lands. This land will not be able to tap for mana until turn five or six at the earliest which is really bad.
• Sphinx-Bone Wand : it's too slow for the for payoff even with Veyran. It's seven mana and you then have to cast an instant or sorcery to put a counter on it.
• Siren of the Fanged Coast : five mana 4/4 flier is what this will be every time you cast it which is subpar.
• Brass's Bounty : not worth seven mana for treasures since you don't want to ramp into it. Need at least six lands in your control to make paying seven mana worth six treasures.
• Curator's Ward : you have better hexproof protection (Greaves/Boots) for Veyran.
• Selective Snare : narrow sorcery speed removal since only works on one creature type.
• Violent Impact
• Traitorous Blood
• Darksteel Ingot
• Jori En, Ruin Diver

---

Some budget cards to consider adding:

• Reiterate : combos with Mana Geyser to make infinite red mana as long as opponents have seven or more tapped lands. Buyback is nice when you want to be casting instants since it lets you after resolving it put it back into your hand to cast again. Mana enablers Storm-Kiln Artist and Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip are excellent with buyback.

Buyback is the reason that Reiterate can be a infinite combo with Geyser. After copying Geyser with Reiterate you resolve the copy of Geyser first and then resolve the original Reiterate which puts it back into your hand. While the original Geyser is still on the stack cast Reiterate again to copy the original Geyser and repeat. Can make infinite storm count for Grapeshot , infinite cast of instant for Guttersnipe / Ral, Storm Conduit or infinite mana for Jaya's Immolating Inferno as win conditions.

• Solve the Equation : tutor for any instant or sorcery.
• Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
• Frantic Search : goes well with High Tide since it can untap lands. Being able to cast an instant to draw and then untap lands lets you potentially cast another instant that you may of drawn to get more out of Veyran and magecraft.
• Brainstorm : staple blue draw spell, instant draw three for one mana.
• Increasing Vengeance : copy your own instant or sorcery. Has flashback which lets you cast it again from your graveyard and if you do copy your own instant or sorcery twice.
• Preordain : Scry 2 before you draw is nice. One mana spell that's a good target to copy.
• Wizard's Retort : Veyran is a Wizard.
• Shivan Reef
• Ash Barrens
• Grixis Panorama

If interested I offer more advice including cuts to consider. Good luck with your deck.

klaudiohmm on Strixhaven Commander: The Tale of Codie's End

2 months ago

Hey! I was building a Living End deck and found your deck in the suggestions. I really like your approach to Living End. I've +1 it already!

Playing with my Living End deck, sometimes I think that putting cards into the graveyard only with cycling effects is pretty slow. The obvious advantage is put cards into the graveyard without "losing" cards in our hand (discard to draw maintains the number of cards in our hand), but I was testing cards that draws and discards a lot of cards with one spell (e.g. Thirst for Knowledge or Frantic Search ). I don't know if is good to have so many cards with cycling inside the deck. Do you have some impressions through the tests you've (possibly) made with this list?

I think that cards like Faithless Looting and Careful Study works very well in your deck. They're sorcery spells with mana value of 1, which is a cost that your deck likes, because of the Codie's ability. Also, Codie's ability lets you cast the spell until the end of turn, so you can delay Living End and cast it after putting cards into the graveyard with the discard clause of those spells I've mentioned.

Another good side of using those spells is that lets you use powerful creatures that does not put themselves into the graveyard. It can increase the value of your creatures and wins you some games. Maybe you don't want to use them because Codie doesn't let you cast them, but maybe they'll work anyway.

I've never played Codie before, but I think that permanent cards can be useful, even with Codie's ability. Codie won't be in the battlefield all of the time, and maybe there're permanents that can help you setup your strategy. If these cards are creatures, you can simply discard them with the draw X discard Y effects, reanimating them with Living End on future turns.