Heroic Intervention
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy 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
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Heroic Intervention

Instant

Permanents you control gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. (They can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control. Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy them.)

Mortlocke on The Queen's Egg

2 weeks ago

Hey all,

I never seem to find a moment to just sit down and answer comments, so sorry for the wait. Doombeard1984, I've been noticing a trend at more competitive tables that players are favoring non-basics over just regular islands. I'd contemplate cutting Carpet of Flowers for another interaction piece like Flusterstormfoil or the aforementioned Aura Shards. I'd have to give it some thought on what would be a good replacement. Nature's Claim has to stay in though, as it's interaction without any caveats which is my personal preference, plus that sweet TimeSpiral Remastered old border foil just gets my neurons going.

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And Mother Sliver Queen's Blessings upon you as well. May you generate many Slivers.

Hi Daevied. I do believe the deck could be downgraded to a Bracket 3 deck with the simple removal of all but maybe 3 game changers. The identity of the deck lies in the curated list of Slivers - the rest is just to ensure your opponents can't thwart your plans. I highly encourage you to try your hand at your own iteration of the deck, some spells i'd suggest including would be:

That's just a list of spells i'd consider - nothing definitive mind you. If you do follow through with your decklist please send me a link to the page. I always like to see what other Hives are brewing.

kamarupa on Uren8

1 month ago

Oh boy. I have... uh... a lot of thoughts.

I'm going to start with ramp and mana base. I've been commenting something along these lines on a lot of decks lately. Ramp isn't much of a ramp if you're missing land drops regularly. Getting to, say 3 available mana on t2 is nice, but if you don't hit a land drop or dork on the next 3 turns, the ramp didn't really help. I'm generally not a fan of spells like Arboreal Grazer and even less a fan when there aren't a substantial number of lands in a deck to start with. At a mere 20 lands, you're going to be have to be very lucky to get both Arboreal Grazer AND 2+ lands in an opening hand. And even if you do, the likelihood of you continuing to draw lands just isn't very high. Basically, any effect that lets you "play an additional land" is just way too conditional to be consistent in my view, and therefore, I prefer to run with dorks and enchantments and rarely, rocks. You do have an enchantment that tutors you 2 lands, but at a pretty steep 4MV, I think it's going to function as much as a 'thinner' as it will a ramp spell. I do see some redundancy there with Prime Time, so I could see it be a useful spell. I should state that Prime Time isn't a creature I have much experience with, so I don't know much about what other spells synergize with it best, but I have a gut feeling that what you've brewed could have better synergy with it. It seems like it might be getting included because it's a well known and feared threat more than being a perfect fit. You also have Flare of Cultivation, which seems like your 3rd best ramp spell after your two dorks. While I like that you can cheat it into play, I don't like the required sac cost to do so as the only really good target is the Arboreal Grazer and that's just too conditional to be consistent. It's not a spell I have lot of experience with, and while I'm not a big deck thinner, I can't deny it has a lot of powerful potential. But I want more good targets for it, preferably ones that actually WANT to be sacrificed. The best part of your ramp is that you have 8 1MV dorks. Given your EXTREMELY high average MV of 4.35, I think 8-10 is probably the right number. To sum up, I would cut Arboreal Grazer and possibly reconsider both Prime Time and Encroaching Dragonstorm, either leaning into Prime Times most classically defined deck elements or cutting it. I'd try to find another 1MV creature for your Flare of Cultivation to target (6-8x 1MV non-dorks that want to be sacced) or I'd look for some other ramp choices. I'd also consider adding in something like Fertile Ground, or maybe Utopia Sprawl, as you do already have a good number of lands with the basic Forest type. If you do go for the Sprawl, then perhaps Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth might be a smart add. Finally, I'd like to see this deck reach for at least 22 lands if not 24. You've just got a hell of a lot of very high MV spells and these days I strive for 22 lands as my minimum. It's just more consistent.

Next, I want to follow up on some of what Balaam__ brought up - disruption. Disruption doesn't do much good in a sidebaord. It needs to be mainboarded or else your deck will not only end up unbalanced when sideboarding, but you'll also be tempted not to sideboard as much as you struggle to choose what spells to swap out of the mainboard. I believe almost all decks need at least 4x disruption spells in the mainboard, with 8 being best. Disruption comes in a lot of forms - counterspell is great, but I don't like tieing up mana playing the waiting game. Removal is classic for reason. Usually half of 8 disruption spells are a form a removal. Sideboards offer us different methods of removal so you can get past all the defenses opponents might use to prevent that removal. That makes sideboarding a lot easier to pull off, swapping removal for removal. I really like protection spells Heroic Intervention - while defensively, it can function like a counterspell, offensively it can do things counterspell can't. It largely comes down to preference, but disruption beyond removal is almost always essential. Of course, there's also discard, which is a solid choice, too, though I don't prefer it because it misses cards drawn after it's cast and so isn't as foolproof as a pre-emptive defensive play. I also like squeezing in 1x Fog spell when I can. I love the comedic flavor of it, but again, that's just my preference/sense of humor. Assuming you cut Arboreal Grazer, Flare of Cultivation, and at least a few copies of Encroaching Dragon Storm, even after adding 2x land, you should have room for at least 4x disruption spells in your mainboard. Incidentally, all these changes should also help bring down your average MV, which will make the deck not only faster, but more resilient as it will be able to respond to opponents.

One thing I do think you have right here is the number of creatures. But I'd like to see tighter choices that play off each other a bit more. I get that Prime Time and Flare of Cultivation support Ureni, the Song Unending, but at 3 copies and Legendary status, I'd want to solely focus on that creature or abandon that whole strategy - it's all or nothing with spells like that - run 4x of Ureni to maximize its odds it comes up when Breaching Dragonstorm when that hits. Maybe even look for spells that let you tutor it to the top of your library - Scheming Symmetry comes to mind, though I don't think that's exactly the right spell for this brew. Brainstorm might be a good option - not really a path to card advantage, but it would be useful in setting up Breaching Dragonstorm.

To return to Balaam__'s feedback, I also agree with him that Breaching Dragonstorm, especially at 5MV is too easy a target for opponents to thwart. I do think you've got enough ramp to hardcast some of your threats at least some of the time, but adding in a secondary (or even primary?) cheat-in spell would almost certainly make the deck more consistent. Elvish Piper, for example might be just as fast or even more consistent, though it wouldn't help with your big sorcery spells. Although I think this would be a significant departure from your current brew, Maelstrom Archangel would be a nearly identical backup to Breaching Dragonstorm. I'd probably go for 6-8 total "cheat-in" spells.

Overall, I feel like this deck isn't quite focused enough. It's not clear what it really wants to accomplish and doesn't seem completely committed to any one goal. At the same time, it also seems a little over-gunned - I sometimes say, "you don't need to bring a tank to a water-pistol fight to get a win" - when it comes to successful brewing, it's not the biggest threat that wins, it's the fastest fully effective one. So my broadstroke advice is to try to narrow the deck down to the core you really want to win with and try to support that core as much as you can.

I do love me some card advantage and I can see how Up the Beanstalk could have been useful here. As alternatives, you might consider Garruk's Uprising, Tribute to the World Tree, or even just plain old Harmonize

Sometimes I find I'll start a brew like this and realize I might have tried to squeeze 2 or more decks into one. It might be useful to fork this once or twice and explore different aspects in each fork. Make one with a lot more disruption mainboard, one with different ramp spells, one that really focuses on Prime Time, etc etc.

I hope some of this is helpful. I'm just spitballing off the top of my head. Don't take it as me being too critical. I'm really just throwing out the first thoughts that came to mind and I'm very likely to have missed nuances, etc.

kamarupa on Godsiren

1 month ago

I like it, but I think you're leaning a little too much on ramp and don't have any interaction spells. I suspect it can be more consistent and competitive with a few more lands and some protection and removal spells in the mainboard.

-4xElvish Mystic, +4 Lands (1xHall of Heliod's Generosity)

-3xChord of Calling, +2xHeroic Intervention, +1xWinds of Abandon

-2xLlanowar Elves, +2xPath to Exile

YouDontKnowMu on BlinkLantza

1 month ago

I'll definitely look into Communal Brewing that seems wild without any "big" drawbacks

I have Legion's Initiative in my maybeboard, but did'nt saw the blink as defensive option, I'm going to switch for Legion's Initiative instead of Another Round

I updated the list to integrate :

Considering to add :

kamarupa on Population Bomb

2 months ago

Nice work! I guess you really deserve some props, as I've seen plenty of people on here that aren't new list decks as certain formats but still include cards that aren't legal in that format. So that's why I asked.

In terms of advice, I probably have more than you want. For starters, I'm not sure a Populate/Tokens deck is going to be what I would consider "fast-paced." It may or may not keep up with a Goblin deck - it would really depend on the caliber of each deck and to a lesser degree, the player piloting that deck. When it comes to speed, I think of low MV infinite combos, burn, Elves, +1/+1 counter Humans... So if you're really looking for speed, then there may be better place to look.

That said, if it's not so much speed, but a tokens, and tokens that can maybe compete with a fast paced Goblin deck, I think that is probably possible. As it stands, it looks like you've got a fairly budget brew going, though I notice a few pricier spells in the sideboard. So I'll be mentioning both cheap and pricier spells and let you decide where you want to draw the line.

For starters, land is one of the best investments you can make. All decks need it and the better lands you have to choose from, the more solid your decks' foundations will be. In my opinion, there is no point in spending big bucks on spells when your land base can't consistently cast them. www.managathering.com is an awesome resource to find lands. It didn't exist when I first started brewing, but I go there all the time now, namely because I just can't remember all the card names like I used to, lol. Ideally, you want lands that don't enter tapped, especially if you're going for speed. If you can afford them, Temple Gardenfoil & Windswept Heath are the perennial favorites. But Razorverge Thicket, Overgrown Farmland, and Branchloft Pathway  Flip are all decent. I recommend 22 lands for a "fast deck" - IE a deck with an Average MV of 2 or less (2.05 is close enough). Much greater than 2 average and I'd recommend 23-24 lands. Which stinks, I know, because the more land you include, the less spells you get and more likely you are to get mana screwed. But I've found that if you ever want to reliably cast spells that are 3 or more, you're going to need those extra few lands. Even with mana ramp, 16 is not enough land.

Typically, Artifact/Enchantment removal spells go in the sideboard. And typically, people run 4x creature removal in the mainboard: Any of the following would be good: Winds of Abandon, Sheltered by Ghosts, Path to Exile should be in the mainboard.

Druid's Deliverance is fun, but even in decks where I include Fog, I rarely include more than 1 copy. At double the MV, Druid's Deliverance is either going to tie up your mana (slowing you down), and/or delay instead of remove, and/or get cast just for the populate, which you already have spells for. So I'd suggest cutting it 1 copy.

Fight as One is... a decent spell. Heroic Intervention would be better. Since all but 1 of your creatures is white, Brave the Elements would be more versatile and cheaper and Tamiyo's Safekeeping is just cheaper. In my experience, 1 is the MV that is best for protection spells because it doesn't need as much mana to be available - that is - they're just more versatile. And I usually only include 1-2 of such spells.

I'd just cut Selesnya Charm. It just doesn't do anything that well and it's single use doesn't make it valuable enough to include.

Call of the Conclave is similar to Selesnya Charm - tokens aren't much about how big so much as how many. Repeatable token generators are going to be bigger threats than single-use spells.

The thing with Populate is that it doesn't really give you much oomph unless you've got bigger tokens. So you're not wrong looking for tokens that are on the bigger size. But since tokens are easy to get rid of and impossible to bring back, most people ignore the Populate mechanic altogether in favor of making lots of tokens as quickly as possible and at instant speed if they can.

Thraben Doomsayer is pretty good, though I do hate the 3MV casting cost. But you can make tokens at instant speed, which is great, and you can do it every turn.

Lingering Souls is one of the best token spells because you get so many for not that much mana, though you don't have the black mana here to make it worthwhile.

Tocasia's Welcome is great card draw for tokens, namely if you can create a token on your turn and your opponent's turn.

Creatures that care about ETB triggers are really good with tokens, too. You really can't go wrong with Soul Warden and/or Soul's Attendant - with 6+ Soul Sisters, I'd imagine a Goblin deck would find it very difficult to hit you for more life than they cause you to gain. And if you can gain enough life, Speaker of the Heavens gives you tokens that are worth Populating.

Growing Ranks is pretty good, but at 4MV,it's on the slow side.

Overrun is a good spell here, and I think you've got the right number.

Wake the Reflections is ok, I guess, but again, only copying 1 token just isn't as good as it might seem. At least it only costs you 1 to cast. The question is whether its actually powerful enough to be worth including, verses using that space for more token spells.

Something like Ephemerate or Cloudshift would probably be good with Hare Apparent

I like Finneas, Ace Archer, but I don't like it enough to overlook its Legendary status to run 4 copies.

Broad-stroke advice: 4x creature removal, 2x protection spell, 1x fog spell, 22x lands, 2-3x card advantage spell, 12x token generators, 8x ETB trigger spells. That leaves you with about 10 spells to lean into a mechanic like populate or more removal, etc, etc.

Please don't think what I write is definitive or that I'm insisting. Ignore whatever you want. I'm just throwing out my thoughts, hoping something might be useful for you.

kamarupa on pigs do fly

3 months ago

I love this concept of flying pigs. Absolute riot. But I want to encourage to try to make it as viable as possible.

For starters, I'd like to see Brindle Shoat get cut, because it's the only non-modern legal spell. Might as well go for legal since you're so close.

I'd also like to see non-boars get cut. There are enough boars and ways to make them fly. Perhaps the most obvious boar that's missing being Ilharg, the Raze-Boar. I realize red is an extra color, but most boars are within the gruul color set, so adding red opens a lot of doors. More importantly, Ilharg helps you get a lot of the high MV creatures into play, which seems pretty helpful.

Cliffhaven Kitesail seems like a good fit, being lower MV to cast, and more durable than an Enchantment.

I've never been much of a fan of Explore because if it's not in your opening hand, it's too common not to get to play an extra card, and 2MV is too much for a cantrip. 20 lands is def on the low side, too, especially with an average MV of 3.48, which is quite high. I suggest you go with Fertile Ground instead, which will ramp much more consistently and also mana fix. Alternatively, you could go with a slower ramp, but still get the cantrip (albeit at a high MV) with Weirding Wood. I also think you need to add 3 lands.

With how many high MV spells here, I think Fog would be useful.

I'd cut the way too high MV Emeria's Call for Heroic Intervention or Tamiyo's Safekeeping or Vines of Vastwood or Tyvar's Stand, etc.

I'd like to see 4xPath to Exile and also 2-3xHarmonize. It's going to be difficult to get everything to fit into only 60 cards, but I find it's generally really helpful to have at least 4x removal and at last 2x draw card.

DreadKhan on Monster Feets

3 months ago

I think you should run more stuff like Lotus Petal or Elvish Spirit Guide, Legacy is an incredibly fast format, and a deck like this needs to be putting a threat on board turn 2 pretty reliably, Lands decks and Reanimator decks can both put similar (or even better in the case of Lands) creatures onto the board on or before turn 2.

To protect vs wipes you could try Heroic Intervention, it's pricey but once you've stuck a threat I feel like you need it to stay alive. Not of this World can help protect your big creature from targeted stuff fwiw, but that's neither wipes or counters!

Have you thought about something like Terastodon to deal with stuff like Ensnaring Bridge? If a Discard deck can stick their Bridge do you have any ways to deal with it? I'm not saying Discard is a prevalent deck, but it can also kill a Dark Depths before they go off with it fwiw. The nice perk of the card is if you blow up lands your opponent will have a hard time casting a wipe, while you might be able to make another large creature!

I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Once Upon a Time, I'd run it as a x4, having one in your opening hand is really, really good I've found in my elf list (which also uses a lot of mana dorks fwiw). Between Once and the plethora of 1 mana dorks I used I ended up going down to 16 lands, which I was pretty happy with in practice.

If you're TRULY desperate for ways to deal with counter magic you can try Null Brooch, I used it in an aggro list to stop wipes, but if you REALLY want to protect stuff that's already on board it can help. It's a terrible card vs rack decks, but that's why we have sideboards, right?

kamarupa on Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels! (Squirrel Prison)

3 months ago

Fun stuff! I have some thoughts. I hope you find something useful, but no worries if you don't!

White is really where it's at with enchantments and the graveyard, namely Hall of Heliod's Generosity. I'd imagine if that were the only thing you needed white mana for, you could probably pretty often get by with a Birds of Paradise and maybe something like a Fertile Ground or Prismatic Omen. However, there are some other nice white spells that might prove just as helpful to you - Sacred Ground and Terra Eternal.

I don't play competitive MTG, but it's my understanding that in fast formats like Modern, you don't really need or even want repeatable/permanent solutions to threats your opponents might have. What we want are fast, efficient, and broadly applicable answers that buy us just enough time to gain enough advantage to win. So my advice - and do take this as a humble suggestion and not any sort criticism - is to forget the artifact defenses (and enchantments I mention above) and focus on having the mana available to cast your counterspells and/or add some low MV protection spells like Tamiyo's Safekeeping or Heroic Intervention and also a Fog/Holy Day or two.

I'd also say that while Drift of Phantasms is decent, I've come to prefer card advantage over tutors. It always seems like it too much to spend 3MV on a cantrip tutor that also reveals your threat. If you wait until you have enough mana to tutor a card, cast it, and have the mana to protect it for two turns, you're already looking at something like T10 without a synergized ramp in place. And that's probably just too slow for [competitive] modern. So, personally, and again, I'm not interested in competitive play, so feel free to ignore me, but I prefer spells like Harmonize for the card advantage and broader range of impact in getting me what I need, even if it is more of a gamble than a tutor. If you keep the artifact defense, you might consider Thoughtcast.

As much as I like what you're trying to do, I'd want an extra land or two, even with the Birds of Paradise. As little as I like it, I've come to believe 22+ lands is usually worth it, especially in a deck that's counting on casting multiple 3MV spells for their win-con.

I like a lot of things about Verdant Command, but I haven't found it useful enough in my little playgroup to warrant a full set in a mainboard.

My final piece of advice is to use the 'Copy Deck' feature here to make forks of this to try out things I suggested (and other ideas you might have). I find it so useful to have multiple builds of the same deck to playtest and compare what's really helping, what isn't, what's fun, what's slow, etc.

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