Humble Defector

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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
Freeform 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

Humble Defector

Creature — Human Rogue

: Draw two cards. Target opponent gains control of Humble Defector. Activate this ability only during your turn.

DreadKhan on Lightning Bolts shoot from my fingertips

1 day ago

It's a bit pricey, but Exquisite Blood is generically very good with burn effects. If you don't mind a combo potentially showing up you can also use Sanguine Bond, which also happens to love your Commander's Lifelink (and fwiw unlike most decks that just throw that in you are VERY able to burn people to actually win on the spot).

I think if you want to use Manabarbs maybe you should look at more Artifact type ramp that won't trigger it? There are some easy ones like Rakdos Signet, Talisman of Indulgence that can even give you coloured mana, and some like Worn Powerstone and Thran Dynamo that can help keep your Commander on the table. Also, maybe I'm missing a ton of them, but IMHO you should have more artifacts if you want to use a Mox Opal.

Some other random goodies you might like: Maddening Hex (this would be HILARIOUS with some doublers), Chandra's Ignition (if you target something with lifelink remember it's the CREATURE doing the damage, so you can gain a TON of life off of this if the board is fairly full, and it's great with a Deathtouch source like Gift of Doom), Fire Covenant (one of the best burn spells ever), and MAYBE a Rionya, Fire Dancer since you've got all those Sorceries.

YMMV but I love having some small card draw effects in a deck like this, maybe Night's Whisper, Winds of Change, Humble Defector, and/or Phyrexian Arena? I feel like Sign in Blood's BB might be awkward.

It's not exactly 'lightning from your fingers', but Brash Taunter is one of the funniest creatures in Magic, just having the little guy out can make you much harder to attack into, and before your turn if you didn't need to remove/burn something you can use mana you're holding up to pick a fight with the biggest creature on board. It's nutso with all your damage doublers IMHO. One of my favorite interactions in all of Magic is how good Scavenged Brawler is with Taunter, it's the kind of thing you won't pull off often, but if people aren't running enough Swords to Plowshares family effects it's amazing.

MLS91 on DreadKhan

3 days ago

Humble Defector is bomb when paired with Homeward Path

DreadKhan on MLS91

5 days ago

I'm sure I'll find an excuse to put it back in (I often pull it for a slightly better card, then put it back in when I realize another card is less flavorful), but I pulled Humble Defector for a Winds of Changefoil in my Rakdos list; they're both good and bad in similar situations, but this is only 1 mana and can wreck an opponent's day while helping me out, or even make an ally or 2 out of people who hate their hand!

DreadKhan on GROUP HUG FOR THE BLOOD GOD

6 months ago

I like this deck idea, so I've been looking it over and seeing if I can think of any ideas that are interesting! Here are a few, hopefully some of them will make sense as includes, apologies if none do!

Rite of the Raging Storm is a nice way to create chaos and get the weakest opponent dead sooner rather than later; in fact, any opponent that can't soak up 5 trample damage is in a lot of trouble. Similarly maybe Slicer, Hired Muscle  Flip and/or Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos in the 99 to get damage in? Any of these works well with Meekstone afaik, other than Slicer when you're down to 1v1 (but he's in the 99 here, so it's not as bad as when he's Commander and the main creature). Maddening Hex also speeds things up, as long as people aren't all on creatures!

If you're looking for another useful equipment I rather like either Embercleave or Two-Handed Axe. Scavenged Brawler isn't an equipment, but it's a very good effect I've found, that's a PILE of keywords. It's also really good if you use it on your Brash Taunter!

I have had very good results from Humble Defector in relevant decks. I also wondered about Starke of Rath, but I worried people would just use him to kill your Commander, so it seemed like a non-bo, then I figured you could always hold the other up while one is out, use Starke like a back up Commander of sorts. Goblin Welderfoil can target anyone's stuff, meaning you can not only get back your own key card in exchange for an artifact token, you can also make an opponent trade their combo piece for their worst artifact. Dwarven Miner and Dwarven Blastminer are pretty fun cards IMHO, it's pretty funny when someone is getting out of hand and you just start taking away colours from their mana base (and if someone steals one they can't do anything to you!), and maybe Volcanic Offering. Another removal effect that can create a lot of chaos is Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, especially if anyone has a Blue Commander you don't like (or uses Blue permanents to wreck your day), fwiw the wipe is friendly to your Commander, as is the ping, that seems maybe relevant?

OOOH! I just had the most Chaos Gremlin idea ever for this deck, have you ever thought about Nemesis Mask? Maybe people will deck themselves!

Hope this deck is as much fun to play as it was to get in the headspace of!

PhotogenicParasympathetic on Card creation challenge

9 months ago

Boundary Guard

Artifact Creature - Soldier

Creature spells cannot be cast from the Command Zone.

: Put target Creature in a Command Zone into play. Target opponent gains control of Boundary Guard.

2/1


Create another Humble Defector type card that does something, then gives itself to your opponent.

Profet93 on I have a bad feeling about this

1 year ago

Siege-Gang Commander - Expensive but might be worth considering.

Feldon of the Third Path - Reuse ETB synergies

Flametongue Kavu - Removal on a creature

Humble Defector - While not ETB, gives you draw which you really need in red. it's a political tool and works best with Homeward Path, the other political tool, especially useful against GY decks that take your creatures

Zealous Conscripts - Super helpful on it's own and can combo with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Kiki adds so much value on it's own as well

Terror of the Peaks - No explanation needed

Curse of Opulence - Politics + useful with Norin.

Outpost Siege > Vigilante justice - Different modes and while it works differently, it's almost the same. Card draw is very important in red EDH

Warstorm Surge - No explanation needed

DreadKhan on Going beyond 40 lands if …

1 year ago

I think I largely agree with lukecwolf, you need a very good reason to want to run more than about 35 lands, depending on your colour you almost certainly have SOME options for cheap card draw effects, and in most games you'd rather see these than extra lands later, stuff like Sign in Blood and Spirited Companion/Elvish Visionary/Humble Defector help grease hands where you drew either a bit fewer or a bit more land than is ideal, these will make sure you're not stuck when drawing another land in it's place would only help when you have too few lands (and would be brutal if you had extra).

If the Jund deck you're talking about is your Mr Orfeo deck, I think you have too many lands for your average MV, I'd definitely run more land ramp spells (to generate faster/more consistent hands, land ramp can fix too), there are even some janky options like Dire-Strain Rampage and Road / Ruin that offer you combination ramp and removal, there are others that provide blockers (like Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf), just running this many lands makes me fear land floods. For the record, if you've got access to Green you probably shouldn't bother with most of the artifact ramp, Nature's Lore and Three Visits are much better than any of those, especially since they can find non-Basics. The other thing your deck should look at is stuff like Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Humble Defector, and Llanowar Visionary/Elvish Visionary, these often play better than more lands. I guess the final thought would be you can sneak some MDFCs in to replace generic lands, the new Stump Stomp  Flip would probably be handy in your list for example, and I think most decks that can run Bala Ged Recovery  Flip and Valakut Awakening  Flip should do so, ymmv on others. At 40 lands I'd straight up shave lands for MDFCs.

I like Bounce Lands in decks that have shaved a few lands, they give you another land drop, but they do make you VERY vulnerable to anyone crazy enough to run Dwarven Miner/Dwarven Blastminer, so keep that in mind I guess? Most people don't use stuff like that in Commander, it's considered anti-social by a plurality of the format, but you might see a Strip Mine, but most people would rather keep their Strip Mine for something like Gaea's Cradle than spend it on a Guildless Commons. I would say with some confidence that you can probably shave a land for every 2 Bounce Lands you replace normal lands with, but I doubt I'd go over 4 or 5 in a deck.

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