Godless Shrine

Land — Plains Swamp

({T}: Add {W} or {B}.)

As this enters, you may pay 2 life. If you don't, this enters tapped.

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

Discussion (50)

TypicalTimmy on Card creation challenge

2 months ago

So Tibalt was March of the Machines when Tyvar plunged the arm-blade into his chest and threw him off a bridge or something. But let's assume Tibalt survived, and that his madness allowed him to retain control from the Phyrexian mental corruption. Especially with the Praetors dead, he's now out and on a rampage where he made his way to Ravnica only to find The Cult of Rakdos without a leader since Rakdos decided he wanted to play cowboy for a bit.

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The wording is to negate confusion for permanents such as Godless Shrine. It's to prevent the whole

• "Do I pay 4 life for the doubled shockland, 2 life for the doubled Tibalt trigger or do I pay all 6 life combined??"

Six. It's all six life.

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I feel horrible for making such a card so make for me a card for my favorite Angel in the game; Aurelia

Balaam__ on Tripwire

3 months ago

An easy path to improvement in speed and consistency would be to add some form of dual land. While you don’t currently have this tagged as ‘Budget’, I’m guessing from the overall price estimate and the fact there are no costly cards here that you’d like to keep it as low as possible (which is perfectly understandable).

In lieu of the obvious go-to selections like Marsh Flats and Godless Shrine which can be quite expensive, there are some decent alternatives. Try looking at Concealed Courtyard and Caves of Koilos or even Isolated Chapel and Shineshadow Snarl.

You’ll want to avoid anything that has an ‘this card enters the battlefield tapped’ anchor chained to it as that will only slow you down, but otherwise it’ll only be a strict improvement if you can acquire some inexpensive lands that provide both {W} and {B}.

DemonDragonJ on How Many Dual Lands do …

3 months ago

I have 10 two-colored 60-card decks, and I have eight dual lands in each of those decks: four copies of the appropriately-colored shocklands (i.e., Godless Shrine, Sacred Foundry, and so forth) and four copies of the appropriately-colored "checklands" (i.e., Glacial Fortress, Hinterland Harbor, and do forth), but I am wondering if I should put additional dual lands into those decks, such as the "slow lands" from Innistrad (i.e., Shattered Sanctum, Sundown Pass, and so forth) or the filter lands from Shadowmoor and Eventide (i.e., Cascade Bluffs, Rugged Prairie, and so forth), or if eight dual lands are sufficient, for each deck.

What does everyone else say, about this subject? Should I put additional dual lands into my 60-card decks, or are eight dual lands sufficient, for each deck?

kamarupa on Tripwire

4 months ago

While I think this deck has a lot of places that can be improved on, one thing you've done well is keep most of your spells to 3 or less mana to cast. Your mana curve looks pretty good - well done!

Now, on to some broad stroke places for possible improvements:

I think you should add "Budget" and "Casual" to your listed hubs.

I'm not sure what your reason for so many singletons is - are you constrained by what you have in paper? Or basing this off a Commander build? I'd strongly recommend reducing your singletons as much as possible by focusing on 3-5 creatures that are your strongest, most synergized. This will improve the deck's consistency and that makes it win faster and more often. It can also help allow for a more effective sideboard. You seem to have the most Vampires, so perhaps going for a Vampire tribal build? If you do go for Vampires, you might consider dropping white altogether. That would make your mana-base a lot cheaper to make consistent and help you cast the spells that require two or more black mana.

I notice you also have 67 spells here. I suggest reducing the deck by 7 to hit the minimum, as this, like narrowing which creatures you include, will drastically improve consistency.

Finally, if you keep the deck b/w, I'd suggest trying to improve your land base by incorporating some dual lands. While it's never great to slow down a deck with lands that enter tapped, it's even worse to not have the right color mana to cast spells. I lean toward the scry lands (Temple of Silence) as being the most valuable trade off for entering tapped, though you might prefer the life gain lands (Scoured Barrens) to fit your lifegain theme. Or conversely, if you gain enough life, a pain land might fit well (Caves of Koilos). If you can swing the money, the path lands are pretty nice (Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip) or fast lands (Concealed Courtyard). I don't like the check lands (Isolated Chapel) or reveal lands (Shineshadow Snarl) because they work best with the always expensive shock lands (Godless Shrine) and I don't have the kind of money.

I hope that helps!

Nunu312 on Calling All Doctors!

8 months ago

While I might like to suggest Maskwood Nexus... I don't actually think it helps you considering the lack of non-doctor creatures. It may still be useful though for pushing you over the line to reach 13.

Three Tree City is a card that might be good though.

K-9, Mark I is really good. Your board state is very important to you so forcing people to pay just a little extra to interfere with it might help you edge out a game. But at the same time, several of the doctors have to attack to activate their abilities and this will help them not die when the do so. Psychic Paper and can also do something rather similar, but might also get you that extra doctor you need. Brotherhood Regalia is another similar card.

I like where you're going with Glasspool Mimic  ^Flip, but it wont bypass legendary. Instead Sakashima the Impostor and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces can both help get around this. Even if they aren't also land.

Similarly Mirror Box is good... but doesn't synergise with what you're doing as you don't have many duplicators for it to work with. I feel like you were going a bit more for Helm of the Host?

All in all though, these are just minor tweaks, the question is what part of the game does this deck operate around? Many of the doctors are spread over a lot of the game, which leads to them being quite unfocused. But I feel you are bringing this towards being a very upkeep centric deck? The question is how to maximise that. It will help Gallifrey Stands go off, but will also help your suspended cards and other triggered effects.

Lithoform Engine could help you in several ways, duplicating doctors, but also duplicating the trigger effect of Gallifrey Stands. While not quite as useful, Annie Joins Up will also double the triggers on your doctors. Roaming Throne is also a trigger doubler... though it's a little dull because it's in every bloody deck now.

Paradox Haze similarly gets you that extra upkeep, but it falls into the problem that a lot of such things do... One extra upkeep per turn is good, but a turn is a long time. While it may be the best option, a way to get creatures into play might be a better slot in your deck?

But there is also another two problems all decks have, mana and getting the right cards. Firstly, mana. You have a lot of expensive cards and you want to be able to cast all of them. Lotus Petal is good... but I don't see it being better than a normal mana rock as you have no ability to recurse it for free. Herald's Horn would probably be better as it can remove about 25% off the cost of all your important cards, and lets you take a peek for them. Leyline of the Guildpact can help with mana fixing, though wont actually set you ahead, as would Three Tree Mascot (which also counts as a doctor). Patchwork Banner is a newer mana rock that helps buff your guys a little. Mirari's Wake is also a solid mana doubler, if a little expensive.

Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyGC is also very cheap and solid, though works better if you have more mana rocks.

You've got a bit of recursion from The Eighth Doctor, which is more likely to turn up due to your commander, but that means that you can take advantage of the search lands. It would require changing out a lot of the land you do have, but if you use the typed dual lands like Canopy Vista or Godless Shrine (because you may need 1 mana more than 2 life), you can search for them and then recurse the search land like Flooded Strand (which could search for any dual land as long as it's part plains or part island). If you want to find what land works like this it's best to google mtg land or some such, there are whole websites dedicated to it. Considering you're running 5 colours, Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder can also help supercharge your mana.

As for getting cards, I feel like you've got a decent search to get the doctors, but you are a little lacking in turn to turn draw. This often means you'll end up sitting in a game with only one card to play a turn and that's not fun. The One RingGC is another groan worthy staple for how good it is (and therefore in everything), but only really relevant if you're running proxies. Collector's Vault is something I'm fond of, while it wont give you card advantage, it's cheap and you don't really mind discarding doctors anyway. Sylvan Library is also insanely powerful.

A lot of the search you do use is really expensive as well. Conflux and Diabolic Revelation are good... but they each cost a huge amount of mana, after which you still have to actually cast the cards. These are things that might help you on turn 10+ without a lot of acceleration. Instead something to get your creatures directly onto the battlefield like Victimize or possibly Pyre of Heroes.

Anyway, that's enough from me for now. Remember, look for cards that get you to your win conditions. Omniscience is great, but only if you can cast it AND if you've got the cards to play AND they are cards that lead you to victory. Perhaps 1 mana per turn or 2 cards might have been more useful.

Rasaru on Zombies 2.0

1 year ago

Do you want to the deck to stay within a certain budget? How much money are you okay with spending to upgrade? $25, $50, UNLIMITED?! :)

My first thought is to fix up your mana base. You have a LOT of lands that come in tapped no matter what your board state or hand looks like. That's going to slow your game plan down quite a bit. Let's make these simple swaps to start. Then, we I have a better idea of what your budget looks like, I can recommend additional swaps.

Vivid Marsh -> Takenuma, Abandoned Mire Utility lands are excellent because you don't have to play them as lands if your mana flooded AND it doesn't come in tapped

Vivid Creek -> Otawara, Soaring City Same as above

Scoured Barrens -> Godless Shrine Same colors, just has the option of coming in untapped and satisfies your other land requirements you're playing, like Shineshadow Snarl

Dismal Backwater -> Morphic Pool Same colors, comes in untapped 90% of the time in EDH

Jwar Isle Refuge -> Drowned Catacomb Same colors and at least has the opportunity to come in tapped vs ALWAYS coming in tapped

Reliquary Tower -> Raffine's Tower Land comes in tapped, but produces all three colors and can be cycled to draw a card if you're mana flooded.

If those options are too expensive, you could easily justify just swapping them all out for basics. :)

BotaNickill on Ang-Hellic

1 year ago

darkmus, thank you again for taking point on this and for all of your help honing my decks! Khoaemon, thank you for the upvote and interest! darkmus is definitely better at explaining all of the interactions of the deck and far more in depth in their explanations. So if you are truly interested in learning the ins and outs of Angel tribal than check out their builds.

I personally love the Angel tribe most of any in MTG history, and I would always encourage anyone else to love them as well! I will offer my two cents on gameplay of this deck for posterity sake. I am a big fan of the white/black vs of the Modern Angel Deck as it offers us a variety of kill/exile/tutor spells if we desire them, Vindicate or Anguished Unmaking, Doom Blade, or Damn, etc. That plus the flavor of the Godless Shrine has always spoken to the heretic in me.

All that being said, I am a big fan of Selesnya and darkmus sure provides good arguments for those colors as well. i.e. Sigarda, Font of Blessings and Shalai, Voice of Plenty, also, hexproof rules! And, Heroic Intervention.

An Ideal first turn would be a Godless Shrine or Temple Garden, followed by Speaker of the Heavens, Esper Sentinel or Giver of Runes, though you could also do Segovian Angel or Aether Vial. ( I feel like we still need a better first turn play, but these are the best options A.T.M)

turn two is Bishop of Wings or Giada, Font of Hope

turn three, Righteous Valkyrie if you have it, or more of the same from T1, T2. or maybe removal.

turn 4, Resplendent Angel. and boom! More angels, more life than your opponent can handle, and With no interaction, you have most likely won the game by your next turn.

If you have not overpowered the opponent by then, you will hopefully keep spawning more angels via Resplendent Angel or boosting other angels via Giada, Font of Hope or your finisher angels Archangel of Thune or Lyra Dawnbringer.

I hope this helps, and let us know if you need any more assistance! That's why we are all here!

BotaNickill on Ang-Hellic

2 years ago

darkmus! Awesome to meet another Angel Tribal Member! Angels are my favorite tribe in magic! You are just the person I need to talk to! I just checked your build out, and it looks good! +1! I had not seen the new Sigarda, Font of Blessings yet, I'll have to track her down and get some copies. Kinda of a Realmwalker effect going on there, I like it! I was kinda surprised you are running Green and No Collected Company tho? I guess you have 9 Angels that are 4 cmc tho, so maybe not great for your build. I Run this deck as Selesnya CoCo Angels on Arena and have pretty good luck with it, but my Paper Deck I switched to Orzhov for better removal. My bro plays a dragon deck with Stormbreath Dragons and they are kinda hard to get around with all white angels. Thus the black removal spells in the sideboard. Plus my Horizon Canopys are in my Bogle Deck, so, yeah I picked up some Silent Clearings and here we are. That, and I feel like the Godless Shrine goes well with the flavour of the deck. I do have two Archangel of Thune she is one of my Favorite Angels for sure, and I did have them in the deck for a while, I kinda go back and forth with the Ratio, Two Archangel and two Lyra Dawnbringer or 3 lyra and 1 Archangel. IDK. Maybe I'll throw them back in there based on your advise. Shadowspear is there for when I run into a bogle deck or something else that has indestructible like Heliod, Sun-Crowned or whatever. I had the Esper Sentinels in the deck as well as my two copies of Giver of Runes but right now I am testing out having the Soul Wardens and Speaker of the Heavens instead. I tried the Aether Vials along with a playset of Serra Avengers but wasn't too happy with how it played out. I don't have the Cavern of Souls but those would probably be nice. I do like having the Soul Partitions tho, it's pretty decent removal in my opinion, and so is the Lay Down Arms but you have to keep your plains count up to make it consistent. Legions to Ashes I was using to help against my brother's Squirrel deck, but I've also been using Temporary Lockdown in my arena build with some pretty decent success. I actually just saved my own ass with it this morning against a merfolk deck for the W!
Do you play in Modern tournaments with your build? I never really see anyone playing angels outside of Historic on Arena.
Thanks for the advice, the upvote and for sharing your deck! Much Appreciated!