Heartstone

Artifact

Activated abilities of creatures cost less to activate. This effect can't reduce the amount of mana an ability costs to activate to less than one mana.

Discussion (51)

Caerwyn on Sliver EDH v1.0

2 weeks ago

To start, I disagree with a few of shadow63's cuts.

Dormant Sliver is a powerhouse, allowing for extremely explosive plays where you draw and play Sliver after Sliver. The downside is significant, but between Necrotic Sliver and your own removal spells, it is pretty easy to kill your own Dormant Sliver and remove defender.

Sedge Sliver would work a lot better if you had a number of fetch/shock lands, but it still pulls its weight in a budget deck. The ability to save any sliver from dying is invaluable.

Amoeboid Changeling allows you to take other players' creatures using your commander.

I do agree that you can probably cut Tamiyo (unless you have a sacrifice-heavy meta). Ashnod's is a great card, but, with Gemhide turning your slivers into ramp, you do not really need it.

---

Here's some other cuts I would recommend:

Aether Vial - outstanding card in 60-card constructed Slivers, since the overwhelming majority of your slivers are exactly 2 mana. Its effectiveness in singleton, however, is a bit lackluster.

Even though your commander benefits from Training Grounds , I do not think you have a critical mass of creatures with generic-requiring mana abilities to make Training Grounds worth a slot. Same goes for Heartstone .

Bring to Light is a bit too much mana for its effect. I do not think you need it.

Next we get into cutting your underperforming slivers. You probably should get rid of 16 or so of your 44 creatures.

Here's a few I would certainty remove:

• Syphon Sliver - lifelink isn't all that exciting of an ability.
• Synapse Sliver - solid ability, but you have better card draw, and five mana is pretty heft.
• Opaline Sliver - You have enough tutors that it should be easy enough to find Crystalline Sliver instead.
• Lavabelly Sliver - too low of an impact.

Beyond those, look at the mana costs of the slivers, and try to cut some of the higher-costed ones. Sure, they have great abilities, but slivers work best when you're dumping a large number of them onto the field as quickly as possible. Focus on the ones that have strong combo potential or work to protect key combo pieces.

Frankly, you can probably stand to cut some of the pure pump/combat slivers, such as Sinew Sliver . Sinew and its friends another card that excels in 60-card constructed, when you can run 12 total pump slivers; it singleton, three is just not that big of a deal. Sliver Legion already provides you a strong way to aggressively close out games--you don't need a bunch of worse versions of that effect.

DarkHero on Marceline, The Vampire Queen

3 weeks ago

Heartstone for Olivia maybe

DarkHero on Tariel, Vampire Deity

3 weeks ago

Heartstone for Olivia maybe?

Bchong on The Broken Lord!

4 weeks ago

You should play:

Chain of Vapor Narset, Parter of Veils , Mental Misstep Merchant Scroll Sai, Master Thopterist Arcum's Astrolabe Trail of Evidence ...literally anything that can consistently crap out artifact tokens Mirrodin Besieged

Why are you playing: Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is this just for the shuffle? Lux Cannon this is a win more card...you supposedly already have 2 artifacts so its better to play literally anything else and just activate urza Heartstone if you have infinite mana anyways then this card is a waste of your time Expedition Map ? you have perfect mana anyways is pumping 2 mana into this to grab like academy ruins the best use of mana?

why so many wincons? like you don't need chalice, aetherflux, lux cannon, and Jace. Its better to focus on 2ish combos, because your wincons are dead draws until you have the combo...I suggest Jace and Aetherflux because they dont require dramatic scepter just infinite mana and or a deck.

multimedia on Life Finds a Way

1 month ago

Hey, nice version of Atla.

Mirror Entity is busted with Atla; it's a Dino and an Egg. Regal Behemoth is a very good Dino/mana doubler. It's Lizard creature type was errata to Dinosaur. In multiplayer Commander Runic Armasaur can be a repeatable source of draw.

Cards to consider cutting:

• Thunderherd Migration : Lore, Farseek, Cultivate and even Growth are better.
• Commune with Dinosaurs : can only get one card of possible 57 of 100 cards. Because it's a one drop and can find a land that makes it playable, but consistently it only get a land.
• Savage Twister
• Ghired's Belligerence
• Shake the Foundations
• Heartstone

Are you using Heartstone in a combo that I don't see? I ask because it only works with two creatures (Atla and Zacama) in the entire deck. You have many repeatable sources to trigger enrage that these one time effect spells are not needed.

Upgrades within the budget to consider:

• Windswept Heath or Naya Panorama > Myriad Landscape
• City of Brass or Exotic Orchard > Krosan Verge
• Ash Barrens > Evolving Wilds
• Rhythm of the Wild > Fires of Yavimaya
• Smothering Tithe > Huatli, Radiant Champion
• Eternal Witness > Road of Return
• Samut, Voice of Dissent > Burning Sun's Avatar
• Chaos Warp > Pounce

Good luck with your deck.

Artatras on "The Many-Faced God" - [[Primer]]

1 month ago

Hi!

As far as budget alternatives, here are my suggestions:

• Mana Crypt : you can either go with a Thran Dynamo or the upcoming Arcane Signet . You do lose the option to kill a player on turn 3/4, but those rocks will serve you well in the mid to late game.

• Ancient Tomb and Minamo, School at Water's Edge can be easily swapped with basic lands.

• Rhystic Study can be replaced by Mystic Remora , but it is a little suboptimal. You could consider Necropotence , but the cost is quite hard to achieve.

• Training Grounds has a weaker, but less expensive alternative in Heartstone .

• As for the more expensive tutors, like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor , you can go with their cheaper counterparts like Diabolic Tutor , Beseech the Queen , Dark Petition and Final Parting .

• Cyclonic Rift : you can go with an Evacuation .

• Damnation and Toxic Deluge : these are hard to replace because we don't have too many options that do what they do for the same mana cost. You could consider something like AEtherize or Whelming Wave .

• Mana Drain : you don't really need it, as you can safely go with Countersquall .

• Force of Will , on the other hand, is very hard to replace. Whatever you choose to include instead of it won't be the same. You want Will because you can tap out and still have a response, therefore something like Arcane Denial would be suboptimal. At the same time, another "free" counterspell like Foil won't be ideal because it rips two cards from your hand instead of one. The only decent option, I think, would be Pact of Negation , even though it's more useful as a protection for game-winning combos instead of player-OTKs.

• Intuition is another card that is incredibly hard to replace, as it's one of the 2/3 best cards in the deck. You could go with a Corpse Connoisseur , but I recommend you to get a copy as soon as possible if you enjoy the deck as it is one of the best upgrades you can make.

• Phyrexian Dreadnought , unfortunately, cannot be replaced. It's the key card of the deck. No other creature is that powerful for such a low CMC. Nyxathid and Eater of Days are a few options, but they pale in comparison with the Dreadnought.

As for your suggestions, I kind of like Archmage's Charm for the utility of its second mode. The only problem I have with it is its mana cost which can sometimes be awkward, making the spell not always consistent. I don't really like Dimir Charm . It's first mode is rarely useful as oftentimes we want to counter removal spells directed to Lazav during our turn, and those are almost always instants. The second and third modes are okayish, but other spells do the same things better. I do get that this is a versatile spell, giving you the option to do three different things, but I believe that dedicated spells will serve you better. If the first mode gave you the option to counter an instant spell I would consider it, but as is it's not ideal. Also, I'm not a huge fan of Force of Negation in this deck. The moment you want to be able to counter spells is often during your turn, when you are trying to kill a player and that player is trying to disrupt you. In that case, Force will be useless as it won't be free. On the other hand, it's also true that if you manage to kill an opponent, chances are you are forced to tap out. This leaves you vulnerable to disruption during the other players turns, and in this case Force will come in handy. I don't know. I'm not fully convinced, but I could change my mind.

I will be checking your own deck and give you some feedback!

troublinparadise on Jarad visits the rat colonies

2 months ago

Love this deck! I'm in the process of building a very similar one. I wish thrumming stone weren't so darn expensive! I'm sure when I buy one they'll immediately reprint it, or ban it...

I've compiled a list of cards I'm considering that aren't in your deck. I expect that many of them are cards you either: 1. Thought about and decided against. 2. Didn't want to shell out the cash for, (I feel ya) 3. Don't use in your play group. (I noticed you've got no tutors. A card like Mausoleum Secrets is very affordable and super strong in this deck. If your playgroup or you personally avoid tutors for balance/powerlevel/gameplay reasons, I commend you.) Hopefully there's a card or two in this list that make you say "oooh!", because your deck certainly got that reaction from me! Bloodbond March is INSANE and it's only 50 cents!

If any of these cards are like... aggressively bad, let me know so I don't put them in my deck, haha. I'm assuming you've actually assembled and playtested the deck, whereas I am still residing in the magical christmas land of my mind.

Creatures:
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Crypt Ghast
Erebos, God of the Dead
Moodmark Painter
Pitiless Plunderer
Solemn Simulacrum
Archfiend of Depravity
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
Butcher of Malakir
Spells:
Necrotic Wound
Soulshriek
Ghoul's Feast
Living Death
Thrilling Encore
Artifacts:
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Heartstone
Enchantments:
Phyrexian Arena
Spidersilk Armor
Journey to Eternity  ^Flip
Black Market
Dictate of Erebos
Lands:
Cabal Coffers
Cabal Stronghold
Cascading Cataracts
Mutavault
Nurturing Peatland
Overgrown Tomb
Twilight Mire
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Verdant Catacombs

I haven't put much thought into what you would cut if you like any of these, aside from Blighted Fen . Once you get Bontu's Monument , Herald's Horn , or Jet Medallion out, Blighted Fen and any basic forests you end up with are gonna feel bad. Initiates of the Ebon Hand and Bog Initiate are spicy ways to fix the issue, but they are also... bad.

Side note: I'm curious how Rancor would be in this deck. It's a weird cost/benefit analysis because of course you want as many rats as possible, but when you can rancor to boost your sac creature +2/+0, then it pops back into your hand every time, it seems like the recursion value might add up. Also allows you to trample through extra damage on one player if they're gaining life. Anyone feel free to explain why Rancor is a dumb idea in this deck :)

Cheerio,
-Trouble

SideBae on Robbing Hood: Memnarch in Tights

2 months ago

I think the Phyrexian Metamorph and the Swan Song are good includes; consider Sculpting Steel .

Changing to all your Island s to Snow-Covered Island s is a good idea, if you want to keep the Extraplanar Lens . I don't think it's good enough, though. It costs you a land to imprint when it comes in, meaning it is fundamentally a source of card advantage. And, especially if you're the only one benefiting from Extraplanar Lens due to snow shenanigans, it has a massive target on its face and will usually be removed fast. That has been my experience with the card -- if yours is different, disregard this part of my comment.

With regard to the cutting of mass removal, I think it is an idea in the right direction. However, I think removal in general isn't a bad idea. I think you should be buying time in the early game until your general comes down, trying to avoid getting killed. Spot removal like Winds of Rebuke , Chain of Vapor , Cyclonic Rift , Rapid Hybridization and Reality Shift are all worth considering. Bounce has an interesting bonus in that it often wastes an opponent's turn to recast whatever you bounced. Most of these spells are less mana than Nevinyrral's Disk , All Is Dust , etc., which means they shouldn't compete with casting your general too often. Theoretically, you'd turn 1 - 2.5 ramp, turn 3 - 4 ramp/remove, turn 5+ cast general and try to win. Notice that this brings up one of the issues with mono-blue: removal, at least in a permanent sense like Swords to Plowshares , is relatively hard to come by.

With regard to cuts, I think it's worth thinking of the tutors as 'Wild Cards.' Tutors act as any combo piece they can fetch -- for instance, Muddle the Mixture can be thought of as a slower copy of either Isochron Scepter OR Dramatic Reversal . Seeing the tutors in this light helps show that you only really need to run one or two loops, as drawing the 'second part' of the combo becomes more and more likely with more and more tutors.

If you want to run the Dramatic Scepter combo, I suggest cutting a bunch of the Palinchron loops. Palinchron is a huge spell to cast, meaning it is difficult to cast. Running Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal and another infinite-mana combo (I suggest Grand Architect with Pili-Pala or Basalt Monolith with Rings of Brighthearth ) is likely enough, and all these combos are less mana intense than the Palinchron loops.

Cuts I suggest are as follows:

• Thwart : Both costs on this card are prohibitive. Leaving four mana up in order to hardcast it means using four less mana on your turn, which can leave a major dent in your available resources. Returning three Island s is the antithesis of ramp, and sets you way back.
• Rite of Replication : Unless I am missing something, this is in the deck for value. However, it is nine mana to cast in a way that is better than Stunt Double , and because tokens stop existing when they're bounced, the creature it makes is less durable than other Clone effects. Rite of Replication is a good card, but I don't think it is good enough to make it in a cEDH deck.
• Heartstone : This is a card I'm not sure either way about. Once you make infinite mana, its cost-reducing effect is irrelevant; before, it may be worse than just a Ponder or Preordain . Depending on how often you want to use a non-combo win, it may be worth cutting. Playtesting will iron this out.
• Swiftfoot Boots : I don't think you need both this AND Lightning Greaves . I think Lightning Greaves is straight better, if only because it costs no mana to equip.
• Darksteel Forge : By the time you've gotten to nine-mana, you should be threatening to win the game any turn. If this is meant to make your blockers better-off in combat, Propaganda is a straight better choice.
• Treasure Mage : If you take my advise and go with combo pieces with lower costs, this card won't fetch enough to justify its inclusion.
• Alloy Myr : In this list, Alloy Myr is just a worse Silver Myr .
• Ring of Three Wishes : The tutors I suggested are much cheaper than this card. Five mana to cast and five to activate is too much, most of the time; you'd be better off with Whir of Invention , which has the added bonus of being instant-speed.