Guardian of Tazeem

Creature — Sphinx

Flying

Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, tap target creature an opponent controls. If that land is an Island, that creature doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.

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
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (40)

ASalesman on Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)

1 year ago

BIG REVISION HERE

Here is all the big changes I've made to this list, and an explanation for each. Guide edits will come in a little bit!

• Replaced Burnished Hart with Mistwalker. Burnished Hart feels too slow, Mistwalker is a cheap sphinx that makes the deck go fast. Mistwalker is a nice addition because it benefits from the full 2 cmc reduction from Unesh. 1/3 and flying on Mistwalker makes it the best changeling when it comes to combat.
• Replaced Guardian of Tazeem with Aetherflux Reservoir. Aetherflux Reservoir is a new win condition in this deck. With all of the added changelings and ability to bounce changelings to your hand, it is easier than ever to play a lot of spells on your turn. In addition to being a 50 lifepoint cannon at instant speed, it is the only lifegain in the deck. It can make up for all the health you lost from Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb. Guardian of Tazeem's effect is underwhelming most of the time. Having the other cheaper sphinxes there is still 20% sphinx, and are easier to play.
• Replaced Leyline of Anticipation with Narset's Reversal. Leyline's effect is honestly underwhelming at 4 CMC. It's great if it starts in your opening hand, but it is Force of Will fodder otherwise. Debatably it is worth for synergy with Sphinx of the Second Sun, but adding emergence zone (description below) gives you a cheaper Leyline effect at the cost of it only being one turn. One turn with the effect is all you need to win the game though, or to get very far ahead with Sphinx of the Second Sun. Narset's Reversal is a great card because it can be great in a counterspell war, but it can also be used to augment your other cards such as Frantic Search or High Tide or Ghostly Flicker. I love Narset's Reversal because it is great on it's own, but also sees some great synergy.
• Replaced Myriad Landscape with Emergence Zone. Myriad landscape is noticably too slow, similar to burnished hart. The utility from Emergence Zone can be outstanding. Emergence Zone is a more easily accessible Leyline of Anticipation essentially. It is less mana to use at the price of using it for only a turn. Presumably the turn that you would use it you would also win the game, so you don't need it more than once anyway.
• Replaced Treachery with Cloudstone Curio. Treachery is a clunky card that rarely resolves. If the mana doesn't untap after this card is played, it feels very bad. Cloudstone Curio is an engine in this deck. It really keeps the BFOF's coming. Playing this card with Universal Automaton on the field means you get to double all of your BFOF's that you play. Additionally, it works particualrly well with the newly added Aetherflux Reservoir.
• Replaced Long-Term Plans with Chain of Vapor. If you are playing the deck right you are seeing enough of your deck to get your game winning cards without using long term plans. Long term plans also scuffs one of your BFOF's because your opponent knows which card it is. Chain of vapor has many uses. As well as being spot removal, it can be used to protect Unesh, and to return other cheap sphinxes to your hand to be played again which grants additional synergy with the Aetherflux Reservoir win condition.
• Replaced Sphinx of Uthuun with Sakashima of a Thousand Faces. Sphinx of Uthuun is expensive for what it does. It will normally be chaper to play Sakashima, and it becomes a second Unesh which doubles all of your BFOFs rather than getting you an extra regular FOF. Having a second Unesh on the field also grants you protection from spot removal targetting only one Unesh.
• Replaced Riddlemaster Sphinx with Bloodline Pretender. Riddlemaster Sphinx's ETB isn't as good as the others (Enigma Thief and Dream Eater). Bouncing one creature isn't super great because your sphinxes already have combat superiority most of the time. It feels expensive for what it does, which means it is too slow. Another cheap sphinx in this slot speeds up the deck, and provides extra synergy with the other added cards.
• Replaced Island with Lotus Field. I want to try this out. I am skeptical that it is actually better than an Island, but we will see! Let me know what you think here.
• Replaced Island with Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip. Becasue why not really? Worst case scenario, you pay 3 life to have it enter as an untapped island. Having it your hand later game can get you a lot of cards in a pinch.
• Replaced Imprisoned in the Moon with Gilded Drake. Gilded drake is 1 mana cheaper. It not only takes your opponents creature away from them, it also gives it to you, at the cost of them having a 3/3 flyer. In cEDH this trade is insanely good for you. Imprisoned in the moon can be removed to return the creature back to their side. Nothing happens when Gilded Drake dies. He can also be easily blocked by one of your sphinxes, which means it might be chip damage to a different opponent. To me Gilded Drake is a no brainer here.

Necrosis24 on Reap the tides - upgraded

2 years ago

Seems like you got the main landfall cards. Only other stapley landfall creatures I’d reccomend would be Scute Swarm, Roil Elemental, Guardian of Tazeem, Tireless Provisioner.

Similarily there are Yedora, Grave Gardener, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, Cosima, God of the Voyage  ^Flip, Blackblade Reforged, and World Shaper.

If you want to bounce some lands you can look into using some moonfolk like Meloku the Clouded Mirror which can be paired with Patron of the Moon, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

On a separate note Greater Good might be worth condisering you have some pretty high powered creatures. It pairs well with Splendid Reclamation and World Shaper which can lead to an explosive turn with your landfall cards in play.

TheVectornaut on Blue/White Life and Defenders

3 years ago

I think a good place to start would be to evaluate what goals are the most important for your deck while making sure you don't have too many ideas that compete against each other. When I look at the deck now, I can see the general idea of a U/W control list that takes advantage of freeze and lifegain to prolong the fight until you can win. However, I see some major problems with the plan as it is now.

First, the deck lacks a clear win condition at the end of all the control. You'll either need to chip away over the course of a slow game with your smaller creatures or hope you have enough freeze effects to get your big guys in late-game. Control deck usually opt for some type of haymaker that can reliably close the game. Some like AEtherling and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are designed to protect themselves, some like Celestial Colonnade and Shark Typhoon place emphasis on evasion, some like Torrential Gearhulk and Snapcaster Mage give you as much value as possible, and some like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Teferi, Time Raveler deny your opponents of counterplay. There's a lot of overlap within those categories and not all of these cards will be played as a wincon, but having a clear plan to win is better than only playing to not lose. The closest cards you have are probably Serpent of Yawning Depths and Archipelagore. Sea monsters are certainly a fine casual deck but slotting them into something else can be awkward at best and ineffectual at worst.

The second problem I see is the missed potential of your chosen colors combined with your chosen tribe. Right now, you have very few ways to take advantage of the clerics in the deck. Clerics are intended to be W/B since you get access to powerful new tools like Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, Taborax, Hope's Demise, and Cleric of Life's Bond along with classics like Sin Collector, High Priest of Penance, and Skirsdag High Priest. The lifegain/drain synergy in clerics also benefits from orzhov colors to play threats like Angel of Destiny, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Marauding Blight-Priest, Speaker of the Heavens, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Twilight Prophet, Pious Evangel  ^Flip, Drana's Emissary, and Cruel Celebrant.

Incidentally, black also synergizes quite well with tapdown effects because of Assassinate cards like Royal Assassin, Deathbringer Liege, and Murderous Compulsion, although white does have its share of Vengeance with Sunblast Angel, Deadeye Harpooner, and Swift Response. Anyway, now that I'm on this tangent, it's worth mentioning that including strong freeze effects is important if you want to make such an underused mechanic work. I'm partial to Dungeon Geists and Icefall Regent as permanent taps, but there's also Guardian of Tazeem, Niblis of Frost, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Time of Ice, Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Frost Titan, and Hands of Binding. Alternatively you can use cheaper cards that can retap a creature each turn like Gideon's Lawkeeper, Blinding Souleater, Fatestitcher, Hidden Strings, and Minister of Impediments. The final category I'll mention are other cards that take advantage of tapping enemy creatures like Palliation Accord and Verity Circle, except I'd only ever recommend the latter.

In summary, I think you should decide whether you're more interested in clerics or in freeze since they don't synergize with each other that well. For clerics, switching to black and taking advantage of lifedrain and sacrifice is advisable. For freeze control, find ways to abuse tapping, implement a strong win condition, and generally include more card draw and countermagic. If you are dead set on combining these styles, I'd at least invest in some tribal support cards to give the clerics more impact than just weakly contributing to the party mechanic. Adaptive Automaton, Door of Destinies, Obelisk of Urd, and Coat of Arms are some popular options. Finally, if your budget doesn't allow you to purchase many new cards, prioritizing the acquisition of additional copies of your strongest but cheapest cards is a good way to upgrade. For this deck, I think those cards are Attended Healer, Cleric of Chill Depths, Hypnotic Sprite, Kor Celebrant, Luminarch Aspirant, Queen of Ice, Shepherd of Heroes, Skyclave Cleric  ^Flip, Concerted Defense, Dovin's Veto, Negate, Inscription of Insight, Staggering Insight, Trapped in the Tower, and maybe Silundi Vision  ^Flip. Good luck with your build and let me know if you have any questions!

Papini on Omnath, locus of creation

3 years ago

Hi GMD_1090, To your comment about putting all 10 fetch lands. I fully agree however I just build the paper version of this deck last week and as you know fetches are pretty expensive. The ones I have, I was lucky enough to open in packs over the years.

So this deck so far seems to try too many things and may not do any one thing well. I could somewhat agree.

This is mainly my take on a Landfall deck. I am not trying to build a landfall token, lands matter or elemental tribal deck.

My playgroup runs about 4 board wipes per deck. I feel like Roil Elemental is expensive ( triple blue) and doesn't do much for the cost since they go back to their owner after a removal. Admonition Angel is expensive ( triple white) and is bad vs board wipes since I lose my board and then give you back your stuff. Guardian of Tazeem is mediocre at best. I fully understand that I may be wrong with evaluating these cards...

My logic for running token producers is that it allows me to bounce back after a board wipe, it gives me blockers and a way to end the game. That being said, I understand why many could think of this as a token deck but I'm not trying to build a token landfall deck.

Why I run token producers: Avenger of Zendikar because I feel it has its place in most landfall decks. Emeria Angel Because one of this deck's weaknesses is flying, Emeria Angel gives me chump blockers. Omnath, Locus of Rage creates 5/5 bodies that bolt, when they die, seems good. Phylath, World Sculptor I could agree that Phylath is the weakest token producer in this deck. Rampaging Baloths gives me attackers or chump blockers. Scute Swarm because I feel it has its place in most landfall decks.

Undoubtedly, some could be changed for better cards...

triproberts12 on Mr. Sandman

4 years ago

If you're going to devote a deck to your favorite card (Nice choice, mine's Soulcatchers' Aerie), I would go all in. For example, in Dimir, Mana Skimmer is the Timeshifted version of Somnophore.

Time of Ice, Quiet Contemplation, Back to Basics, Dream Tides, Wrath of Marit Lage, Temporal Distortion, Neko-Te Thalakos Dreamsower, Wall of Stolen Identity, Frost Titan, Queen of Ice, Wall of Ice, Niblis of Frost, Guardian of Tazeem, Icefall Regent, Dungeon Geists, Mesmerizing Benthid, House Guildmage, Tidebinder Mage, Watertrap Weaver, Frost Lynx, Stitched Mangler, Fogwalker, and Vertigo Spawn would probably be my picks for "freeze" tribal.

Alternately, if you're not invested in Dimir, so much as in the creature itself, you could build a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, or Empress Galina deck, since those commanders probably best represent what the card is doing.

WyvernSlayer on The Greatest Fisherman in the Multiverse

5 years ago

Hey, thanks for stopping by! I did make one small trial update recently - cutting Guardian of Tazeem for Vantress Gargoyle . It was more of a curve consideration than anything; Guardian competes with Geralf at the 5CC slot, and Gargoyle offers similar stats and a more synergistic ability.

SufferFromEDHD on Mono-Blue Land-Matters/Moonfolk Tribal

5 years ago

I completely understand budget issues. Took me 20 years to build my collection. Take another look at my deck and pick 5 you think you could easily trade for.

Maybe Guardian of Tazeem or Roil Elemental could find a home in your list.

bushido_man96 on Sunderstruck

5 years ago

Poly_raptor, thank you for the suggestions. The more I look at Tishana, Voice of Thunder , the more I think I might need her in here, if not for another "no maximum hand size" effect.

EPICSpider23, thank you for the suggestions, as well. I'll address them bit by bit...

Tideforce Elemental does appear that it would be quite helpful. The more I play, I'll see if I need more of that effect, and it may go in. It's added to the Maybeboard for sure.

Lotus Cobra isn't as expensive as it used to be, so I'll consider it, as well. Its just figuring out what to cut.

The other landfall cards are good cards, but I'm not necessarily looking to gain 300 life, so the lifegainers I'll probably pass on (although they would go very nicely in a more landfall-focused build). Guardian of Tazeem has a solid effect, but not sure if I want to wedge that in there. I've got a decent removal package right now, but I'll keep it in mind. I was aware of Tireless Tracker ; I've got a copy I run in a Titania, Protector of Argoth deck. Also a good consideration. At the time of the initial build, it was more than I wanted to pay for a card I didn't have another copy of. Now that I'm fine-tuning, I'm more likely to spend a bit more on a card here and there. The drawfall cards I'm going to pass on; if I switch out too much stuff, then I lose the original theme of the deck with the Moonfolk and land bouncing effects, which I want to keep.

As for the Planeswalkers; I'm not averse to them, I just don't own many of them, and I try to make my initial builds fairly easy on the budget. Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner has a decent static ability and a useful loyalty ability, but I'm not sure she's quite worth a spot in the deck. The others, I just don't have.

Now, on to other matters: I really enjoy the uncommon Commanders, too, and have built around several of them; Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage , Valduk, Keeper of the Flame , Slimefoot, the Stowaway , and am currently working on a Tiana, Ship's Caretaker build. I'd love to see your Hallar, the Firefletcher build. I like him, and think he's worth a build, but am just curious as to how consistent he is for you, and how you manage the kickers, etc. Looking forward to your reply!