Gilded Lotus

Artifact

: Gain three mana of any one color.

Discussion (49)

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 9: Gruul …

1 week ago

In the last article, I referenced the opinion that Heath Ledger’s Joker is a Rakdos player. Here, I further submit that Godzilla is a Gruul player, or would be if you could find cards big enough. Big, stompy, and gloriously unsubtle, if you like mind games then maybe this isn’t for you. The rest of us will have a grand old time stampeding over you in the true Rhythm of the Wild.

Parsing out themes within Gruul commanders was a little more challenging than the past color pairings. While there are obvious trends like ramp and damage, I’d prefer to discuss things that are more in line with both colors rather than one or the other. To that end, we’re discussing X, Power, and Unsubtlety. As always, please bear in mind that the point isn’t a discussion of the competitive but rather a celebration of the thematic.

X

Bear with me. There are only six legal Red-Green spells with X in the cost, and not all of them are playable. However, there are currently eighty red X spells in print, sixty-eight in green. The other colors all have less. Of those 148 cards, 71 do some sort of damage. My point is this: In the Green corner, we have the undisputed champion of ramp, while in the Red corner we see, by inference, the most willing color to serve as a mana dump. Klauth's Will is probably the only Gruul X spell I’d play, but there are lots, and I mean LOTS, of mono-colored choices for channeling your inner flamethrower.

A 4/4 for four? Not bad. That taps for four? Woot! Heck, I run every Gilded Lotus I own, and that’s only good for three mana! If you like X spells, Rosheen is a nice, reliable bet that probably won’t draw much hate.

This guy? Unlike Rosheen, he might draw hate, and in spades. Doesn’t look relevant to X at first glance, does he? All that draw is magnificent, and an excuse to finally go tribal werewolves is well and good. Come nightfall, though, and he suddenly turns into a Kessig Wolf Run. Crack enough mana and you can kill everyone with one wolf token each. Good times.

This card was made for Goblin Bombardment and all it’s disgusting relatives. Sweet mercy, what a load of combo this is. Crack infinite, Make a pile of tokens, play it, empty it, play it again.

Power

Green’s fatties tend to be just that: well-rounded. Most of them have equal power and toughness, or near to it. In Red, however, you see things like Spark Elemental frequently: potent attackers made to die quickly, loudly, and messily. Both colors, though, have a passion for dominating in the combat phase. From Runes of the Deus to Fires of Yavimaya, there’s a fine sweep of support for storming enemy lines, and there are a number of Gruul commanders who do the same.

Whoa nelly, let them fight is right! Suddenly all those glass cannons Red gave you are made mighty, mighty thick by offense being, after all this time, the best defense. Flowstone Slide is suddenly tempting to play, frighteningly so. I don’t know what other chicaneries you might get into, but this is something I’d love to see played.

Omnath, Locus of Mana had a flying, hasty baby. I’m just going to leave this here and remark that any other commentary I would have made is being drowned out by maniacal laughter.

You like command damage, right? Of course you do. Well, that’s not the point here. However, playing big toys is strongly endorsed, especially when paired with Unnatural Growth and all those delightful parallels to the Pathbreaker Ibex. Get tall, go wide.

Unsubtlety

One could argue for the elegance of simplicity, but there’s nothing elegant about clubbing your opponents with chonks or hosing them down with napalm. Black, now, black’s plenty elegant. Blue is stupid elegant. Green and Red, though, lean towards an extremely direct approach. Here, we’re talking commanders that reward simplicity, encouraging unorthodox deck construction in order to reap some sort of reward.

Lands and critters, critters and land. And SUCH land! I always loved Heartbeat of Spring, but most similar effects double everyone’s stuff, or a particular kind of stuff. Not Nikya. Nikya gives only to you, provided you want to spend it on creatures. Props if you start pulling crazy tricks with Ashaya, Soul of the Wild.

Always swing? Ok. Reach and Vigilance? With two heads, I’m not surprised. 6 damage to anyone not playing a proper spell? Gloriously unsubtle, and less prohibitive than Nikya. Faced with the prospect of self-immolation in seven spells, Blue is going to be very, very cross with you, to say nothing of artifact decks.

The big guy puts me in mind of a line from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. “I'm coming for blood; no law, no code of conduct. You put me in the right direction, you get the hell out of my way.” This looks hard to pull off, but lordy the work it’ll do when you manage! I know from experience that green has all the kit necessary to fill a hand with land: give ol’ Borbor a deck excessively stocked with lands, a few choice options to shuffle your graveyard back in, stick him with Basilisk Collar and get to work.

And, for my personal favorite...

We HAD to discuss him at some point. Nobody is going to look at this guy piloting your deck and wonder what’s going to happen. You are going to spam land drops like nobody’s business until you can afford to plunk his expensive ass on the field, and then you are going to start making an EFFORT. You are going to throw thiccness at absolutely everyone. And, above all, there will be a delightedly murderous glint in your eye whenever someone suggests boardwiping. I know because this is an old, old deck of mine; there’s a bare-bones toolkit, then 40-odd lands and a massive pile of land-rush and “whenever you play a creature.” Think Warstorm Surge, Animist's Awakening, and an excessive collection of the actual token.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for a real favorite of mine, Selesnya!

Prior Articles:

Rakdos

Dimir

Azorius

Green, with links to the other mono-colors

lagotripha on All the Powerstone Shards

2 weeks ago

This was a deck in standard where you got 7 mana powerstones for Cogwork Assembler right?

There are some interesting alternatives in modern - untap effects, Saheeli Rai and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. Clock of Omens shenanigans, Voltaic Construct or Aura of Dominion shenanigans with Singing Bell Strike as a combined removal/combo piece, trying to stick a Dramatic Reversal on a turn with temporary clones. Voltaic Key/Manifold Key can do a lot too.

In terms of powerstone alternatives, Gilded Lotus and Nyx Lotus is popular, while Liquimetal Torque opens up creature combos. Chromatic Orrery is pretty much built for this kind of combo.

Cloning effects - Mirage Mirror, Mirrormade, Mizzium Transreliquat, Prototype Portal are notable.

There is a lot to work with in terms of artifact support, even for cloning, so best of luck.

Phule451 on I'll form the head

1 month ago

Thran Dynamo is one of my favorite mana rocks, though it may not fix your mana, it ramps hard into big plays. Another good rock to consider would be Gilded Lotus. Smothering Tithe is of course the best white ramp card, but because of this it is a bit pricey. Boros is the hardest to ramp in, but It can be done. Hope that all helps. Happy playing, may you draw well.

KaptnK on

1 month ago

Asmoeus here are some suggestions around what I would do to improve the deck on a budget

Lands

• Remove Desert of the Fervent (enters tapped with no effect) > Add Evolving Wilds (will let you find a specific colour if you are missing one)
• Remove Desert of the Mindful (enters tapped with no effect) > Add Terramorphic Expanse (will let you find a specific colour if you are missing one)
• Remove Forgotten Cave (enters tapped with no effect) > Add Mountain
• Remove Lonely Sandbar (enters tapped with no effect) > Add Island

Artifact

• Look decent. Gilded Lotus does have a high mana cost so would keep an eye on how often you cast it.

Sorcery

• Remove Creative Technique (with your lower mana curve odds of you revealing something really good is low) > Add Arcane Denial as a good, cheap counter spell
• Remove Fiery Encore (expensive and requires you to discard a high mana cost card to deal decent damage) > Add Solve the Equation (Tutor for the spell you need)

Creature

• Remove Charmbreaker Devils (returning spell at random will not often get what you need, and does not have a way to get around blockers) > Add Runaway Steam-Kin (Will help you cast more spells and give you mana)

Other Considerations

• Stormchaser Mage
• Mulldrifter
• Archaeomancer
• Mnemonic Wall
• Turn Aside

rb701 on infinite combo?

1 month ago

unfortunately no. replacement/modify effects such as Parallel Lives and Anointed Procession used in tandem are just multipliers; they don't actually react the way you are describing

when it comes to infinite combos, its easiest to compare to simpler ones that fall under 2 categories - controlled and uncontrolled

controlled - Gilded Lotus, Captain of the Mists, and Illusionist's Bracers create a controlled infinite mana combo. so long as i choose to make it happen, it does. while there are lots more like this, it doesn't change the circumstance

uncontrolled - Life and Limb, Sporemound create an uncontrolled combo due to modify and ability. because LaL is turning forests and saprolings into a unified type, and Sporemound triggers due to a land coming in to play, it is a continuous unbreakable loop. in terms of this, when it comes to competitive play, you have to define a limit (ie "i make ten million tokens"); however, you must be able to prove the existence of said limit, or be disqualified. i had this clarified by a local game store whom the owner regularly attends tournaments. when it comes to uncontrolled combos, you want to try to add in an element that allows a slight amount of control through continuous checks - in this case, i used Pandemonium. as each creature came in, it dealt damage to the opponent, and a life check would have to happen

hope this helps

Vessiliana on Drink Death Like Wine

1 month ago

I have considered the Grave Pact, and the only reason I'm not running Nyx Lotus is ... that Avacyn took it. I'm running it there. But you're right. For this deck, it's so much better than Gilded Lotus that I have to put that on my next order!

If you end up liking Wound Reflection, mlequesne, maybe you'll want to consider Warlock Class. I'm thinking of adding it.

mlequesne on Drink Death Like Wine

1 month ago

Hi there friend! I love your deck, Ayara is really amazing. I've been playing a deck commanded by her, from my experience, here are a few comments:

1) I see no Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, unless you're avoiding it, its a must in this kind of deck.

2) Since you're playing the devotion game I highly recommend Nyx Lotus, it has been working awesome in my deck, at least it gives you as much as Gilded Lotus with your commander in play

3) Cards like Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos are great in this kind of deck

4) I really LOVE the idea of playing Wound Reflection, I'm gonna try it in my deck

See you around :)

Zujiry on Orvar Control

3 months ago

Bei so vielen 'target Land' sachen, sieht das ja fast aus wie ein grünes Deck x)

Für Orvar finde ich Chamber of Manipulation und Cloudpost sehr witzig.

Wieso Aquitect's Will ? Um das unendlich zu verdoppeln und deine Lib zu ziehen?

Combos: 1. Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal 1. Whim of Volrath + Gilded Lotus / Gilded Lotus Funktioniert Sapphire Medallion mit Buyback? Da man das Medallion verdoppeln kann, würde das Dinge vereinfachen :)

Du hast Mystic Remora oO?