Helm of Awakening

Artifact

Spells cost {1} less to cast.

Combos

• Future Sight + Helm of Awakening + Sensei's Divining Top

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Leif-The-Lucky on Elsha, Threefold Master

2 months ago

Hi, capwner, thanks for the deck upvote! That is very true. She is in the 99, so it would be a powerful way to win. I think I have underestimated this card just because Elsha of the Infinite is not my commander. But she is in the 99. And even without her, we still: Trigger prowess at least once a turn, makes running 22 lands feel a little safer, and it gives our colorless mana some value in a deck with so very little colorless mana symbols...

With Elsha of the Infinite + Sensei's Divining Top + Helm of Awakening we can draw our entire deck! Which is worth mentioning! Makes me consider whether an Aetherflux Reservoir is worth it.... Regardless, I think Sensei's has found a possibly permanent spot in the decklist.

GregariousG on Manifest the Deadly Disguise

9 months ago

To dylan.575:

Kaust is definitely a commander that screams, “I’m working harder to do my thing than you are.” Yes, the draw of Kaust is the surprise element. There is nothing better than an opponent using panic removal on a manifested land. However, Kaust’s problem is that he supports a draft mechanic. As well, Sultai, particularly {U} and {B}, have more impactful morph creatures. However, there should be more resources as Magic will return to Tarkir in 2025. As well, I’m hoping that Disguise will be an evergreen mechanic. For me, this deck needs more ways to manifest and cloak. Ugin's Mastery, Veiled Ascension, and Mastery of the Unseen pull plenty of weight for me. Though it isn’t a permanent, Hide in Plain Sight is too good to not play.

---

You are 100% correct on your assessment for instants and sorceries. My build really wants to manifest and cloak the top card, which makes these two cards types even worse. Because of that, I use permanent types that do similar things to the instants and sorceries that were previously in the deck. The thing I found about Kaust, whether testing, playing, or research, is that Kaust has to make the gameplay experience “fair”. “Fair” for who? Fair for Kaust, and just Kaust. That means Kaust needs to slow down the game and shut off game elements he doesn’t utilize. The biggest change in success was shutting off ETB triggers. ETB triggers are simply too good. Almost every deck is playing a creature with ETB triggers, except Kaust for the most part. That isn’t fair and it shows. Torpor Orb, Hushbringer, and Doorkeeper Thrull are some of the best cards in the deck. You could add more Torpor Orb-effects, but I prefer these two because they have flying. You also notice that I’m playing some stax creatures, like Void Winnower and Yasharn, Implacable Earth. I'm gonna point out Yasharn because I don’t use any sacrifice elements outside of fetchlands. Though yahsarn’s ETB will be shut off, I will gladly pay that price to stop players from sacrificing treasures. I’m to the point where I want to add more stax elements to the deck. I agree with your assessment about “on attack” creatures, except for Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. Phlage has been great both with and without a Torpor Orb on the field.

---

Your version has cost reduction, which is something I should put back into the deck. I was using Trinisphere but it was just ok. I thought about putting in Hydra Omnivore and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa in my version. I had Silverback Elder and it ended up on my “maybe” list. I’d be careful of Helm of Awakening cause I won’t want to reduce cost for everyone. I’m an old school player but I’m moving away from the auto inclusion of Lightning Greaves and/or Swiftfoot Boots. I’m finding that lots of ramp acts as recursion and protection for {G} decks. What is Dawn Charm doing for you? I cut Expose the Culprit for Teleportation Circle and I have no regrets. Your top end is good. I like the new Eldrazi support that I added to mine. Because my Kaust builds just makes tons of mana, I can just hard cast Eldrazi. Let’s keep helping each other to make Kaust great!

GregariousG on Somebody's Watching Me | *Primer*

9 months ago

To dylan.575:

Kaust is definitely a commander that screams, “I’m working harder to do my thing than you are.” Yes, the draw of Kaust is the surprise element. There is nothing better than an opponent using panic removal on a manifested land. However, Kaust’s problem is that he supports a draft mechanic. As well, Sultai, particularly {U} and {B}, have more impactful morph creatures. However, there should be more resources as Magic will return to Tarkir in 2025. As well, I’m hoping that Disguise will be an evergreen mechanic. For me, this deck needs more ways to manifest and cloak. Ugin's Mastery, Veiled Ascension, and Mastery of the Unseen pull plenty of weight for me. Though it isn’t a permanent, Hide in Plain Sight is too good to not play.

---

You are 100% correct on your assessment for instants and sorceries. My build really wants to manifest and cloak the top card, which makes these two cards types even worse. Because of that, I use permanent types that do similar things to the instants and sorceries that were previously in the deck. The thing I found about Kaust, whether testing, playing, or research, is that Kaust has to make the gameplay experience “fair”. “Fair” for who? Fair for Kaust, and just Kaust. That means Kaust needs to slow down the game and shut off game elements he doesn’t utilize. The biggest change in success was shutting off ETB triggers. ETB triggers are simply too good. Almost every deck is playing a creature with ETB triggers, except Kaust for the most part. That isn’t fair and it shows. Torpor Orb, Hushbringer, and Doorkeeper Thrull are some of the best cards in the deck. You could add more Torpor Orb-effects, but I prefer these two because they have flying. You also notice that I’m playing some stax creatures, like Void Winnower and Yasharn, Implacable Earth. I'm gonna point out Yasharn because I don’t use any sacrifice elements outside of fetchlands. Though yahsarn’s ETB will be shut off, I will gladly pay that price to stop players from sacrificing treasures. I’m to the point where I want to add more stax elements to the deck. I agree with your assessment about “on attack” creatures, except for Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. Phlage has been great both with and without a Torpor Orb on the field.

---

Your version has cost reduction, which is something I should put back into the deck. I was using Trinisphere but it was just ok. I thought about putting in Hydra Omnivore and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa in my version. I had Silverback Elder and it ended up on my “maybe” list. I’d be careful of Helm of Awakening cause I won’t want to reduce cost for everyone. I’m an old school player but I’m moving away from the auto inclusion of Lightning Greaves and/or Swiftfoot Boots. I’m finding that lots of ramp acts as recursion and protection for {G} decks. What is Dawn Charm doing for you? I cut Expose the Culprit for Teleportation Circle and I have no regrets. Your top end is good. I like the new Eldrazi support that I added to mine. Because my Kaust builds just makes tons of mana, I can just hard cast Eldrazi. Let’s keep helping each other to make Kaust great!

wallisface on Mono Red Control/Mill (Premodern)

10 months ago

halanvaina just to play devils-advocate to your latest comment, I've posted replies to some of the mentioned cards and ideas. I hope this doesn't come across too rude - I just really feel like your deck is lacking some really fundamental deckbuilding guidelines and feels very non-functional because of this.

• I don't see the point at-all of Feldon's Cane. You have absolutely no way to mill yourself unless you've played Crumbling Sanctuary and then failed to kill your opponent before they've killed you... the entire plan here feels flawed if that's the case. Crumbling Sanctuary itself is already faar too expensive mana-wise, and there's very-good odds you won't even be able to cast it before the game ends.

• swapping one overcosted card for another doesn't really solve any problems... Kamahl, Pit Fighter is still too high a mana cost to be useful imo. I agree it is a very-strong improvement over Butcher Orgg, but that doesn't mean either should be played.

• I'm not sure what you're hoping to achieve from Devastating Dreams? This looks like it hurts you much more than your opponent, especially considering your mana curve is so egregiously high.

• You seem to be relying a lot on Jayemdae Tome but I really can't see how the card is playable. Yes it lets you draw 4 cards but at the expense of effectively doing nothing for two full turns - i'm not sure how any deck doesn't just automatically lose when they're taking two turns off doing nothing impactful.

• I get that Helm of Awakening is there to try and accelerate your mana curve, and that will help, but even then you've only included 2 of them, and your curve is still massively high. You need a LOT more mana acceleration, or to severely reduce your mana curve - and ideally you would do both.

• I'm not sure what problem you're trying to solve with Mangara's Tome, presumably card selection, but this really isn't the answer. Your mana resources are too limited already and either triggering or casting this thing likely means doing very little else in your turn. You're better-off drawing blindly from your deck than paying 2 mana to draw sudo-blindly anyway.

My biggest concern is your statement "While I do agree with opponents choosing two different options a terrible idea most of the time, the thing is with damage and fairly low cmc means that eventually your opponent will just have to do what I want."... the problem is that your deck doesn't have low cmc - I've checked other premodern decks and none of them are even remotely this slow. I don't believe the opponent will have to "choose what you want" because firstly if they're switching to the other choice, that means the first option would be hurting them more, so they're still taking the best path for their own survival, and making your life harder. And secondly, because I don't believe your deck is remotely fast enough to apply any pressure... your opponent will win long-before you put them into any kind of a bind.

I had a look at a bunch of competitive premodern decks here and there is a big gap between these decks and what you're currently running - namely that these decks can enact their plans much more quickly, and run a much lower mana-curve. I see premodern has archetypes like burn, which is effectively what you're doing but without all the extra steps and self-induced complications.

halanvaina on Mono Red Control/Mill (Premodern)

10 months ago

Forgot about other stuff and sideboard updates.

I see the problem with the 5 mana stuff, so I added a couple Helm of Awakening to try and reduce the cost a little. Has to be colorless since almost all of my 5 drops are artifacts. Speaking of 5 drops, i added a single Mangara's Tome as a way to kind of tutor with a added risk. More tweaking foreseeable in the future. I know it's jank, no need to tell me.

As for the sideboard I took out Black Vise for Red Elemental Blast. Forgot what I took out, but I put 3 Burnout in there. Added a couple Tangle Wire, leave the creature hate alone and I think it's fine.

Also as for the whole Dwarven Ruins thing, I'm actually debating if I should replace those, or take out two mountains for the Balduvian Trading Posts. Again I'm very much in debate over this.

Kagiyama on Hold your colour

1 year ago

Profet93

That's quite an extensive list, thank you! My card draw is usually okay-ish but could be better. I'd also would like to have more tutors for juicier stuff. Getting more ramp might not be that necessary, but there are a few eldrzi mana-dorks I'm still missing. Maybe Helm of Awakening Could be worth it? I'd also would like to replace some generic colorless 7+ beatsticks with eldrazi, which would sinergize well with tribal stuff.

carpecanum on Yuriko OP?

1 year ago

Tyrannical Pitlord, Mukotai Soulripper, Helm of Awakening, Futurist Operative, Academy Loremaster. My choices anyway.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tiger-shadow-jutsu/

That is my Yuriko deck. It does ok. I have more Instants I think and several ways to copy Yuriko. It has zero defense however

thefiresoflurve on Raining Lava

2 years ago

Hey!

So, for prioritizing cuts: I'm starting with anything > 1 CMC, since your 1 CMC instants/sorceries are free. Next, I'm thinking of anything that doesn't synergize with instants and sorceries.

Defiler of Instinct - pretty self-explanatory: only interacts with red permanents.

Professional Face-Breaker: Combat damage isn't what this commander/deck/Storm does. For this reason, I'd also drop all 3 of your Battles. Your other opponents certainly aren't going to help you get Invasion of Karsus  ^Flip to flip.

Ignite Memories: can go. There are better ways to deal damage to players, most of which are already in here.

Goldspan Dragon: this could almost work, but I don't think you have enough instants that target creatures. It's also a bit too tempting of a build around in the 99, IMO. (With it and Urabrask  ^Flip, you can target it with 2 CMC spells and break even...)

Possibility Storm: am I missing something here?

Price of Glory - depends on how much blue you face, I guess. I wouldn't run it in a deck built around Storm or Instants, but YMMV.

Sunbird's Invocation - just horribly overcosted for what it does, IMO. For comparison, Approach of the Second Sun is 1 more mana to literally win.

Caged Sun - seems like overkill with your commander doing what it does, and probably vastly too slow at 6 CMC.

Helm of Awakening - you barely use generic mana here. I get the feeling this would benefit you least in most matchups.

Liquimetal Torque - ? Yes, you Have Galvanic Blast. Is there anything else I'm missing here?

Hope that helps, GL and happy building!