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)

Artatras on The Many-Faced God - [Primer]

1 day ago

Providing budget alternatives is not that simple because the deck is balanced as is and changing any single card would alter its equilibrium. I will try my best, but do keep in mind that with the following changes you will need to play the deck a lot slower than before. Without free counterspells you will need to wait for when you can leave mana open, and so on and so forth. Hopefully, the fact that all the decks in the tournament follow the same budget restrictions can make up for this. Here are my budget changes:

Mana Crypt and Mox Amber: any two-mana rock, like Arcane Signet and Mind Stone.

Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship: a copy of Foil and Dispel. Depending on your specific meta, you could consider Mental Misstep.

Mana Drain: any two-mana counterspell. My choice would be Countersquall.

Ancient Tomb: a basic Island.

Cyclonic Rift: Echoing Truth. This can bounce a single permanent or an army of tokens, which seems particularly useful in your case.

Damnation and Toxic Deluge: your choice of Languish, Whelming Wave, Evacuation or AEtherize.

Dark Confidant: I once used Disciple of Deceit, which was suboptimal. Alternatively, Looter il-Kor or any draw spell.

Intuition, Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor: Diabolic Tutor, Forbidden Alchemy and Beseech the Queen are okayish.

Training Grounds: Heartstone is the closest comparison, but do keep in mind it works for your opponents as well.

These are all direct substitutions. I took the cards you mentioned and replaced them with their budget counterparts. If you think some of them aren't good enough (and in most cases they are not), then you can consider including something completely different instead. I'm thinking about cards like Propaganda, Torpor Orb, more removal, more card draw, more ramp. You have the privilege of knowing the decks you will be facing, so you can tweak the deck according to your matchups.

If you want to be prepared against a token deck, try shaving some single target removals or counterspells for a few extra board wipes. Just be extra careful against Meren because they tend to play a lot of Fleshbag Marauder-like effects, which is something this deck really struggles with. Make use of your haste enablers to kill your opponent during the very first turn you play Lazav, before he or she has the opportunity to play those cards.

I wish you good luck for your tournament, and let me know about your results!

king-saproling on Xantcha, Sleeper Agent

1 week ago

Xantcha is so rad. Have you considered Heartstone? It would make it easier for everybody to use her draw ability.

These might interest you too: Revel in Riches, Unholy Indenture, Minion's Return, Blessing of Leeches, Soul Channeling, Visions of Brutality, Treacherous Link, Ragged Veins, Binding Agony, Spiteful Shadows, Unnatural Hunger, Errantry, Inner Demon, Psychotic Fury, Vampiric Link (unlike lifelink, the controller of the aura gets life, not the creature's controller)

TCK_Green on Sliver Queen infinite combo

1 week ago

Hey - sorry for the super-slow reply, thought I'd done so a month ago but just seen that I failed to!

No problem :) I'm glad my feedback has been helpful. I'm very much a casual brewer, but I like seeing decks where people are very much wanting to have fun!

Thanks for confirming about the infinite-ness. Agreed, you probably have enough infinite payoffs already - I wish I could use the 'I was tired' excuse about some of those payoffs, but I can't remember when I wrote my feedback and according to the TappedOut timestamp it was mid-morning...

Removals

Agreed that the Lightning Greaves and Coalition Relic were good additions. I'd probably think about also removing Amulet of Vigor (I'll be generous and say that you have 9 cards that would currently benefit from this - assuming that you don't add loads of Ikoria lands!) and Intruder Alarm (you only have 4 Slivers that benefit from infinite untaps, and by the time you have infinite creatures you probably don't need those. Plus, if you have one of the Slivers that gives Haste out, then you you'll have the equivalent of Intruder Alarm with all your infinite Slivers.) Then again, it's a fun win-more card so there's no harm in keeping it :)

On a related note - how many cards are you expecting to draw? I only see 3 sources of card draw in the deck (Dormant Sliver, Distant Melody, Patriarch's Bidding) - you're going to have an empty hand much more often than not. You've got ways of using your mana in your sliver abilities, so that's not a concern, but Reliquary Tower's ability is useless for you. I really think it's overplayed in EDH because people see it as bonus value. In your deck it's a fairly unhelpful land to have in your opening hand - you really want lands that tap for coloured mana. I'd much rather have any of the (e.g. Vivid Grove) then Reliquary Tower for the colour fixing the provide, even though they enter tapped. Speaking of, it might be worth adding a couple of those in - though at some point you might prefer to add more Tap Tri-lands instead (e.g. Ikoria lands). Your call - but beware of putting too many tap-lands in the deck, you'll be surprised how much it slows you down and puts you behind everyone else :) (and yes, I do think land-ramping is often better than having mana rocks - people don't feel bad destroying artifacts, but it's an unwritten Commander rule that lands are semi-sacred!)

Why have a card

It might be helpful to think how happy you'll be to draw a certain card from the top of the library in the early/mid/late game. For example, whilst Amulet of Vigor is fairly nice to have in the early game, it's a fairly miserable draw in the mid/late game since you have nothing that would really benefit from it - which is why I'd take it out if it was me. That's just my two cents of course :) another way people tend to valuate cards is the - 'how helpful is this at (1) the beginning of a game, (2) if we're all roughly equal, (3) if I'm ahead and (4) if I'm behind'. It's one of the reasons I put a lot more interaction in my decks now than when I first started brewing, since it's usually pretty decent to have in (2-4) :)

Other thoughts

I notice that you've got some Slivers in your maybeboard twice. I did also spot the Ikoria card, which got me thinking (and I honestly don't know the answer to this) - do Slivers count as having activated abilities, and if so then how much would you need to change to make the deck super spicy and have Zirda, the Dawnwaker as a companion? On that note, Training Grounds would be a decent addition to this deck. It's a strict upgrade to Heartstone in this deck - but I say have them both, you'll almost always be happy to pull one of them off of the top of the deck! :)

The 'card draw' comment earlier got me thinking. Have you thought about adding Guardian Project? Since 1/3rd of your cards are non-token unique creatures, it means you'll be drawing a card on ~1/3 spells. It's not the best of cards to pull off the top, but if you get it down before you finish emptying your hand then it can give a bit more gas to push further.

Final thought - it might be worth adding a couple of instead of signets. It means you can split your mana more easily, and depending on the format and how quickly you expect to win, you probably won't mind the loss of health. It's one of the reasons why Shock Lands are so expensive - taking 2 damage is an easy trade if it allows you to fix for the cost of life!

As before, it looks like a fun and fairly rounded out deck. I've done 2-colour and 3-colour Slivers, but I haven't done 5-colour yet because there's a lot of ways I could take it; I think I'd probably end up with a similar deck to yours, but with fewer creatures and more ramp so that I can get my Queen out on T4. Let me know how it goes and what other changes you decide to make over time. I'm going to go away and ask some questions about Zirda - if so, then I definitely know what Sliver deck I'll be building!

GL, HF, and stay safe! ^_^

Surgesyndicate on The Hivemind

2 weeks ago

Training Grounds or Heartstone would have some very nice synergy w/ your overlord at the helm. Tutor becomes cheaper, letting your cast that sliver you pulled earlier. Also combos well w/ Sliver Queen & Basal Sliver for infinite slivers/mana/etb trigers

Mortlocke on Sliver Tribal deck building, need ...

3 weeks ago

I always enjoy an opportunity to talk about Slivers, and am only sad that I didn't find this forum post sooner! I'll happily give my two cents to each question:

1. what non-sliver cards I should include?

That's a rather open ended question, but taking your budget of $150 into account the absolute most important thing in a Sliver deck (besides slivers) would be the manabase. Gemhide and Manaweft Slivers can only get you so far. I suggest you invest in the more budget options for 5c decks, namely:

• Mirage Fetchlands: Are constantly overlooked by their hotter younger siblings, but are still viable for any mutli-colored deck on a budget.
• The Bond lands: Still at a great price point.
• Shadowmoor/Eventide Filter lands - These are on the pricier end of a budget scale, but come in handy.
• Shocklands - Are also a bit pricey, but are amazing if you can spare the cash/trade your way up to them
• Odyssey Filter lands - solid lands that aren't highly pursued. Only allied colors have been printed though.
• Triome lands - These are fun lands and can be fetched by the previously mentioned Mirage fetchlands.

2. What (are) some sliver win conditions are outside of Infinite combos with Sliver Queen, and anthems like Legion Sliver or Coat of Arms?

So that's a tough one - the vast majority of wins with Slivers are going to be Combat damage (Going wide) or Combo ala Sliver Queen and Mana Echoes (or Heartstone and Ashnod's Altar if you're a hipster). But one strategy that is kind of overlooked is Voltron using your commander (Going tall) with the Slivers in your deck serving as the Auras and Equipment. The usual suspects would be Bonescythe and Shifting Sliver, where you'd be putting your opponents a two turn clock. Another non-Queen or Legion option would be Spiteful Sliver (Or Stuffy Sliver as some call him) and some sort of Blasphemous Act effect. Get a field full of Slivers and drop that spell and you could surprise blow everyone out on the table with a ton of damage to the face.

Personally, I don't recommend anthem effects that also help out your opponents (like Coat of Arms) because tribal decks are very popular and such a card can be turned against you. You don't need all the Slivers in a Sliver deck: Decide how you want to win, and pick the Slivers that best support that strategy. Try and keep the number of Slivers around 25 or less - you don't need all the keywords, just the right ones.

If you ever want to look at another Sliver build, I take a great deal of pride in my own - check out The Queen's Egg and drop a +1 if you feel so inclined. Good luck in building your deck.

Chitinous Approval Ensues

atingtdm on Urza, Nice Lord Don't STAX

3 weeks ago

Leddy71 I'm glad you asked.

When you active Urza's last ability with it, only cost you .

Add a additional Heartstone or Mirrormade could make this value engine go on and on...

KidEnkidu on Ghave That Bitch an Infinite Combo [Primer]

1 month ago

Abzkaban I can't believe I've been overlooking that for over a year, good thing I never tried to do it in a game. Thanks Inkmoth for correcting me.

Here's my list

Tayam works as a great "draw" engine, and you can assemble loops centered around Tayam, they're just a little more involved than loops around Ghave. For example, Tayam + Ashnod's Altar + Heartstone + Reyhan, Last of the Abzan + a Blood Artist will get you there, but that's 5 cards. Although it's nice that Tayam's ability can get back every piece.

PabloEscobar666 on Grenzo, Goblin Smuggler

1 month ago

Lanzo493 those are all great ideas! Made a few changes based on your recommendations, Epitaph Golem is much better thank Soldevi Digger and Heartstone is a no-brainer. I like where your head's at by including Beetleback Chief, the combo with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle is broken enough with Siege-Gang Commander as it is, but redundancy (in this case) is a good thing. Thanks again!