Gilded Lotus

Artifact

: Add three mana of any one color.

Discussion (51)

Feiryn on Here there be DRAGONS!

2 weeks ago

My bad I meant Fierce Guardianship, they're both similar in purpose and I always get their names mixed up lmfao

Since you're in 5-colour you mostly want ramp that has colours in it. Arcane Signet and Fellwar Stone are the first two cards you should look at getting since they can go in any type deck, maybe Coalition Relic as well. Birds of Paradise is top tier and so is Deathrite Shaman since you own fetchlands.

I personally like Lotus Cobra in these kinds of decks especially with fetches, meaning that with Cobra on the field you get 3 mana per each fetch you play (one from playing the fetch, one from the tutored land entering, and one from tapping that land). Nature's Lore is really good and Wild Growth is fairly decent as well.

Of course this is all on top of you already having Sol Ring, Chromatic Lantern, Dragon's Hoard, and Exploration. Keep those at the very least, though I recommend keeping your Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, Farseek, and maybe Skyshroud Claim and Sylvan Scrying as well. It comes down to figuring out how fast or slow your regular playgroup is and whether or not you can afford slower artifacts like Dynamo/G.Lotus, though since you're in a more casual environment they should work pretty well.

Hope that helps!

Optimator on Thada Big Mana

2 weeks ago

Myriad Landscape is ramp and doesn't take up a slot, so that is worth considering. Everflowing Chalice is great for these kinds of ramp decks too. With all your glorious sea monsters the big-boy ramp cards will be useful. Gilded Lotus, Mana Vault, Dreamstone Hedron, Thran Dynamo, Nyx Lotus, and Empowered Autogenerator would all be good. Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, and Extraplanar Lens are good for decks like this.

Don't underestimate the small rocks either. Sky Diamond, Sapphire Medallion, Prismatic Lens, Star Compass, Guardian Idol, Arcane Signet, and Coldsteel Heart are all good. Burnished Hart is good for heavy ramp in Blue. Personally, I always aim for eight pieces of ramp in most normal decks (which is where you are, including High Tide) but in high-CMC ramp decks I aim for 10-12. Your commander could be considered a piece of ramp since Sol Rings are so easy to steal. Thieving Skydiver could be considered a ramp piece too!

Quicksilver Amulet miiight be worth considering. Far from mandatory. I often prefer pure ramp if the deck isn't super creature-oriented.

Optimator on Blood Diamonds

3 weeks ago

Thanks for the advice, ThoAlmighty!! This deck is one of my new decks built almost entirely out of cards on-hand. I bought the Venser's Journal, Gilded Lotus, and kind of bought the Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate for it and had the rest of the good (and bad) cards already in my collection in need of a home. As such, plenty of the card choices are not ideal or optimized. In a sense, this is a budget deck not looking for big-time upgrades yet. I'm aware that Deathgreeter and Falkenrath Noble don't synergize with my deck at all but they are just incidental lifegain and as early-game blockers. Definitely filler for now. Deathgreeter might have enough utility (in my meta) for his cost to stick around until I get something great for lifegain, such as Twilight Prophet or Exquisite Blood etc. I was thinking about replacing the noble with Ivory Tower since it's old and janky and one of those "works almost nowhere except this commander" cards. I want to play more games and see how important lifegain ends up being to me. Some decks run a shitload and some run almost none.

I've played five games now and in the three games where I played Ambition's Cost and/or Ancient Craving they have worked out. Ideally they smooth out my mid-game and draw me into more lands, ramp, and answers/removal to get up to Vilis. So far they have done so. I also don't have a ton of free-life-payment cards like Doom Whisperer so they serve as passable refueling for Vilis. More games will surely give me insight but for now I like them.

So far the ramp has worked out all right but I had an eye to add more already. I have twelve pieces (13 if you count Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx... oh to have a Cabal Coffers too!! Just gotta wait for Commander Legends). I usually have 7-10 in my decks so this is still feels like a good, high amount. I used to have Bubbling Muck and Dark Ritual in the ~105-card prototype but they were late cuts, reducing my overall ramp-card count without replacement. Five games isn't a huge sample size, to be sure, so I'm gonna feel it out some more before I make swaps. I would definitely add Thought Vessel as an early upgrade. I was also thinking of swapping the Leaden Myr for a mana rock that doesn't die to all my wraths.

Thanks again for your comments!

Massacar on Budget Kozilek Ramp

3 weeks ago

I would consider adding more artifact ramp cards to increase the speed you can cast Kozilek, the Great Distortion.

All of these cards are relatively budget (they cost between 1-4 dollars on average), I could suggest more depending on how "budget" this deck is.

Basalt Monolith, Fellwar Stone, Fractured Powerstone, Gilded Lotus, Lotus Petal, Ur-Golem's Eye

Also Helm of Awakening to lower all of your mana costs.

Peoni on Crustacean Altercation

1 month ago

This deck might benefit from evasion cards like Aqueous Form, Artful Dodge, and Awesome Presence.

I'd also recommend swapping out Nyx Lotus and Gilded Lotus for different rocks. It costs 4 mana to cast AND comes in tapped AND you aren't even guaranteed to get value out of it. It all depends on whether or not you're having a good game. You could play this turn 4, not get to use it til turn 5 since it's tapped, AND still maybe only get 1 or 2 mana out of it. Oh, and because of its high cost it's going to be a juicy target for removal. If it gets blown up you basically just skipped a turn. Gilded Lotus is similarly a large target for removal, it's slow, and if it gets destroyed it isn't quite like skipping a turn since you get 3 out of it immediately, but it's still a setback. Everflowing Chalice and Fellwar Stone would each be pretty nice replacements.

I like your deck! Big crab is gonna be fun to see in action. Hope this helps. :^)

Peoni on Feldon of the Melancholic Path

1 month ago

Basalt Monolith can produce infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth if your own philosophy and playgroup don't frown upon that.

I'd also recommend swapping out Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus for cheaper cmc rocks like Arcane Signet and Fellwar Stone. You want to be able to get your ramp out fast in the early turns and spend the later turns making your plays. Would you rather be dropping a mana rock, or something that makes an impact like Purphoros, God of the Forge?

I love your inclusion of Extraplanar Lens. I'm a big advocate for the card in mono decks that can swing it in their budget. I would, however recommend running snow lands along with it, as you're less likely to see an opponent running snow mountains than regular mountains, meaning asymmetrical ramp for you. Maybe your playgroup is all about the snow lands though and normal mountains are the play.

This deck might also benefit a lot from stack interaction like Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast. Always good to have some control over whether or not your stuff resolves (or if an opponent combos off or not).

I like your deck! It's a solid list all around with a fun core concept. Hope this helps! :^)

Peoni on Burning lifegain - Boros spell slinging

1 month ago

I'd recommend replacing Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus with 2 cmc rocks like Arcane Signet and Talisman of Conviction. You want your ramp to be cheap, fast, and efficient. Get your ramping out of the way in your early turns so you can start making plays. Would you rather be spending 4-5 mana on a rock or be doing something that impacts the board, or sets the stage for your commander's arrival? Additionally, the more valuable the rock, the bigger target it becomes for removal. If you get your dynamo or lotus blown up you're gonna be setback a bit.

I do like your deck though! You might like Boon Reflection and Dockside Extortionist. I just picked up Firesong & Sunspeaker along with Feather, the Redeemed and a bunch of Boros staples as a gift for my friend. Might suggest he take some notes from here if he ends up using F&S. Hope this helps! :^)

Peoni on Nekusar EDH Cards for Everyone

1 month ago

kei1 So Niv-Mizzet, Parun is good because it is pretty much guaranteed to resolve on cast, rewards you whenever your opponents do things, and has a slightly better stat line. It is, however pretty mana intensive in requiring 3 blue and 3 red and it also requires some form of catalyst to access its card draw. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind is a little easier to cast with 2 of its cost being colorless, and he doesn't need a catalyst to access his draw because it's a tap ability. It is only 1 card you get to draw from him though on his own, and his stats are slightly weaker. Overall I'd say Parun is probably stronger but there's nothing wrong with running both. Just improves your odds of finding one of your combo pieces.

As far as Thassa's Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries go, self-mill is actually one of the most powerful as most competitive win cons in EDH. It's extremely common for high tier cEDH decks to rely on cards like Thassa's Oracle as their primary win condition. Before Flash got banned, Flash Hulk decks were one of the strongest and most oppressive archetypes in the format because all you needed were flash and hulk in hand with the right cards in your deck and you could mill your entire library at instant speed and win with Laboratory Maniac. There are a lot of ways to mill your whole deck out there. If you wanted to do it in this one just take your Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter combo and any X draw spell like Prosperity or Blue Sun's Zenith and there you go. Library gone. Alternatively, you could use targeted X draw like Blue Sun's Zenith to just mill an opponent to death. Primarily with your Isochron you're going to be wanting Dramatic Reversal imprinted on it. That's why Muddle the Mixture is a good transmutation here. :^)

You're going to want to keep your mana rocks cheap and efficient. Additionally you want to be ramping hard and fast, so 3+ cost rocks aren't really ideal for a deck that's wanting to be more than casual. Spend your first few turns ramping as much as possible, then by turn 4-5 (or even 3 if you ramp fast enough) you want to be making your plays. For example, let's say you have potentially 5 mana turn 3. Would you rather cast Nekusar with a Force of Will/Force of Negation ready or a Gilded Lotus? You don't want to be dropping rocks when you could be making plays. Plus expensive rocks like Gilded Lotus are going to be big removal targets. If you cast it and it gets blown up, you're gonna be set back quite a ways.

As for Cowardice you're mainly just going to want to protect stuff like Nekusar with your counters and as was mentioned before Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves. It's more important to just keep him on the field. And if it's the commander tax you're worried about consider this: how much mana are you going to be spending over the course of the game recasting Nekusar from your hand every time someone targets him with anything at all? Just make sure that when you cast him from your command zone you have the ability to make him stick on the field.

Finally with bounce keep in mind that sure you can bounce a card and then potentially wheel it out of their hand into the graveyard, but removal does exactly that anyway without the extra step or the risk of them being able to cast it again before you wheel. Keeping some bounce in isn't a bad idea like you said to potentially deal with stuff that's indestructible, but I would advise you focus on removal first and foremost and run bounce as a secondary thing. Don't take out Cyclonic Rift though. That card is almost an auto include (there are no actual auto includes, but this one is pretty close) for any deck running blue. Very good card. Plus if you took out some of your bounce you could run some cards more suited to your general strategy, like Notion Thief! Seriously though wheeling out your opponents and then flashing in a Notion Thief so they get 6 less cards than you is just dirty.

Hope this helps! Anymore questions just let me know. Always happy to help. :^)