Ghostly Touch

Combos Browse all Suggest

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
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Ghostly Touch

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature Enchanted creature has "Whenever this creature attacks, you may tap or untap target permanent."

legendofa on Why is Untapping Lands a …

5 months ago

In blue, the Urza's Block hugely skew land untapping, and that block is widely considered to be an overpowered mistake, especially for blue. Urza's Saga and Urza's Legacy alone have ten cards that allow land-specific untapping, more than half of all the blue cards that allow untapping lands without untapping all permanents. They'll be included for the sake of completion, but I wouldn't take them as any sort of precedent. Pioneer legality is just five cards, with one of them being Standard-legal. Blue is the undisputed king of untapping permanents in general, but doesn't have any special focus on lands.

Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "land": Twiddle, Reset, Infuse, Jolt, Twitch, Mind Over Matter, Great Whale, Peregrine Drake, Rewind, Time Spiral, Turnabout, Cloud of Faeries, Frantic Search, Palinchron, Snap, Treachery, Trickster Mage. total 16

Modern Border, "untap" + "land": Oboro Breezecaller. total 1

2015 Border, "untap" + "land": Pore Over the Pages, Unwind, Finale of Revelation, Kelpie Guide. total 3

Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "permanent": Telekinetic Bonds. total 1

Modern Border, "untap" + "permanent": Dream's Grip, Psychic Puppetry, Toils of Night and Day, Tidewater Minion, Rimewind Taskmage, Coral Trickster, Merrow Reejerey, Pestermite, Fatestitcher, Merfolk Skyscout, Reality Spasm, Deceiver Exarch, Captain of the Mists, Ghostly Touch, Hidden Strings, Curse of Inertia, Tidal Force. total 17

2015 Border, "untap" + "permanent": Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Clever Conjurer, Nimbleclaw Adept, Ioreth of the Healing House, Forensic Researcher. total 6

Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "Island": none.

Modern Border, "untap" + "Island": none.

2015 Border, "untap" + "Island": none.

There's 44 mono-blue cards that can untap lands in some capacity, with 20 of them being more specific than untapping permanents in general. If Urza's Block is taken out, then there are 34 blue cards that untap lands, with just nine of them having any sort of restriction.

So in final summary, I see green land untapping increasing in recent years, and blue permanent untapping actually falling off slightly. There were 18 blue untap cards in the 12 years of the modern border, and nine cards so far in the nine years of the 2015 border. Discounting Urza's Block, there are slightly more green cards that can untap lands than blue cards, and many more green cards that untap lands than blue cards printed in the last ten years.

If I missed anything in this breakdown, please let me know. But I think the cards are there to support my initial position. Both green and blue are primary in untapping lands, if lands are counted as permanents, and blue is secondary in untapping lands specifically. Mark Rosewater's answer is is at best incomplete and missing nuance, and at worst totally wrong.


Keeping the above because it took me a long time write and I don't want to undo the effort.

In response to wallisface, percentage of cards with a given effect doesn't matter to primacy of color.

  • Primary – This is the color (or colors) the ability is seen in most. That means it shows up in the highest volume and usually at the lowest rarity that the type of effects get used at. The primary color will almost always get this effect in a set if it's an ability we do every set. It also tends to be the color that most often pushes the power level, if it's an effect we push the power level on. There's a wide range on what primary means, because different types of effects exist at different levels. A card secondary in flying can show up way more than a card primary in taking extra turns, for instance, because we have so many more flying cards than extra-turn cards.

  • I want to stress one more time that primary, secondary, and tertiary are relative to how often an effect is used. Things that are secondary in a color, for example, may be far more prevalent in that color than things that are primary if the items in question occur at a higher frequency.

Source: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021

For example, MaRoo has repeatedly stated that red is primary in extra combat cards, with white as a contender for secondary.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021

https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/760377485190938624/can-any-color-aside-from-red-get-extra-combat

There are only 36 cards that grant an additional comabt. If primacy was considered as a proportion of cards that grant additional combats was considered only as a proportion of total cards of that color, I don't think any color would be considered primary.

So while there might be fewer cards that untap lands in green as a proportion of total green cards in recent years, that's not a relevant measure to color primacy. The relevant measure is how often cards that untap lands show up in green compared to other colors, which I think is demonstrated by the above lists that green has more land untap effects than any other color, with blue being nearly equivalent. That, according to MaRo's definition, means that land untapping is primary in green.

9-lives on Tetsuko Umezawa and Prosthetic Injector

9 months ago

Does Ghostly Touch and Hidden Strings let me tap/untap my opponent's lands? It would be occurring during the combat phase, so I'm wondering if it would be useful to tap my opponent's lands? If not, I could always tap creatures and untap my own lands.

9-lives on

9 months ago

Does Ghostly Touch and Hidden Strings let me tap/untap my opponent's lands? It would be occurring during the combat phase, so I'm wondering if it would be useful to tap my opponent's lands? If not, I could always tap creatures and untap my own lands.

king-saproling on Target opponent is your teammate [BANG!]

4 years ago

Cool deck!!! I really dig the intent here. You might like these: Null Chamber, Vizier of Tumbling Sands (can untap your friend's lands or mana rocks), Aphetto Alchemist, Unbender Tine, Hyperion Blacksmith, Tidewater Minion, Fatestitcher, Ghostly Touch, Nin, the Pain Artist, Captivating Glance, Act of Treason (steal an opp's creature, then use Zedruu to permanently give that creature to your friend), Braingeyser, Arcane Artisan, Proteus Staff, Diviner Spirit

Epicurus on Your Cards Lookin Nice

4 years ago

Cool deck! Lol'd at "I ain't got no green." You do have a generous amount of mana ramp, though, so it doesn't seem like as big of a problem as all that. I hear what you're saying, though, but I'd still suggest Treachery.

And the clones aren't a bad idea either. Cloning and stealing both fit the same thematic identity. No reason to choose one over the other, so long as you have more of whichever one is a) helping you more, and b) helping you early. Also, though, Faerie Artisans is my favorite such card. And Sakashima's Student is another fun one, as is Cryptoplasm. And on the other side of the equation, Domineering Will is hella fun in multiplayer, while still valid in 1v1.

As for the untappy stuff, it's always useful to have cards that potentially can tap as well as untap. So if you're stuck with them and no Merieke, they still serve the purpose of disruption. Tideforce Elemental, Freed from the Real and Ghostly Touch are all good for that. Also, Pemmin's Aura is really a must for the deck because it can grant protection in addition to its untap ability, and Aura of Dominion is another cheaper untap card.

Finally, you do have a minor mana curve issue. For any of my suggestions, if you thought about including any of them, I'd first start looking for cuts from among anything that has a similar effect but costs more. Also, simple, single use ramp spells like Dark Ritual, Culling the Weak, High Tide and so on are fairly prevalent in blue and black. Also, Land Tax, while not budget friendly, is worth every penny when you ain't got no green, and Knight of the White Orchid is also useful in the right situations. And Arcane Signet should be an automatic add to any EDH deck, especially if it's more than 2 colors.

I know I said finally in the last paragraph, but also Swiftfoot Boots is a slightly slower but slightly better version of Lightning Greaves, and honestly you're better off with the boots than the greaves because you can target the Boss Lady with your untappy stuff without having to scoot the equipment around. Hexproof > Shroud.

Sorry that this is so damn long of a comment, but please note that I have all of these ideas because I really would like to build a deck like this as well. There's a lot of them I've seen that are full of infinite loops, and I appreciate that yours isn't. That's how I'd like to build mine too. It's not easy with Merieke, because she doesn't have haste, and she doesn't have a built in way to either untap or protect herself. I really like what you have going here, and I'm going to folder it for inspiration.

Cheers!

maxmcnugget on I am become death, destroyer of decks

5 years ago

I am confused about some card choices: Ghostly Touch , Mortus Strider , Restless Dead , and the unblockable creatures like classic: Phantom Warrior . Are the unblockable creatures here so Lazav can become unblockable? Or for cipher/Trepanation Blade/Sword of B&M? Thanks.

Rozmar on Mono blue edh

6 years ago

I love the Silent Arbiter idea. I prefer Hands of Binding over Ghostly Touch because it’s harder to get rid of but I see how it can be useful. I hope your tromo deck turns out well DanowarElf

MisterBeandipJones on Mono blue edh

6 years ago

Getting ideas for my own TROMO deck and mannnnnnn Vorrac Battlehorns is sick tech! Thx! I'd recommend Silent Arbiter and Ghostly Touch. Plus you'll need Fireshrieker along with anything that give +3/+X, like Heirloom Blade for 22 commander dmg.

Load more
Have (1) reikitavi
Want (0)