Hundred-Talon Strike
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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
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Hundred-Talon Strike

Instant — Arcane

Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.

Splice onto Arcane-Tap an untapped white creature you control. (As you play an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)

rotimislaw on

2 years ago

Depending on how much you'd like to stick to cool-looking Japaneese Instants, play-wise I'd recommend to drop entirely for less tapplands & quicker gameplay.

You could put in Call to Glory or Hundred-Talon Strike . Alternatively, if you're ready to loose your Samurai constraint even more, Arrester's Zeal would match what you'd like to get ;)

Reznorboy on Tazri/Zada

3 years ago

Thanks again for your continued input :). Also, I like more text. More chances to find what I need.

Anyway, I had put in the Maybeboard one combo that I knew about for a while but never acted on, Swell of Growth with Rain of Filth. I'll need to find room for it. However, with your addition of Enter the Unknown (it's actually perfect, seriously) the combo just gets better and more consistent. It makes the ~15 lands I have in hand during my final turn not useless.

I knew about Hundred-Talon Strike, but forgot to actually include it. I will add it but I'll want to first add more cards similar to Cerulean Wisps. (I would be playing that already if I had a copy/more use for it.)

A card I may add that is similar to Adverse Conditions is Traitorous Greed. Rather than making tokens and colorless mana, it makes double the colored mana.

I may add Splicer's Skill (but not Everdream.) (Odd choice, I know). It just feels that despite the higher mana cost, the tokens are invaluable.

Lastly, the whole protection spell thing was absolutely, completely beyond necessary. In the third game I played that day, one of my opponents played a card that gave all creatures -4/-4. I lost that game for that reason. If I had been playing a counterspell (I actually had Ajani's Presence in my hand when he played it, and the mana to do it), I would have most likely won that game as well (tragic, I know).

AceVonDuck on Tazri/Zada

3 years ago

Hmm...and it looks like now my spoiler isn't working. Alright, well, the cards were the following:

Everdream is basically an updated Evermind, but it allows you to splice onto any instant or sorcery (not just Arcane) for one extra mana than Evermind. This means you could use it in conjunction with other non-arcane spells you control, such as splicing it onto Ajani's Presence, Defiant Strike, Twinflame, etc. You could also cast it normally from your hand for the same cost as Evermind's splice cost, which might be nice if you're desperate or in dire need of card draw.

(There's only one other card that can splice onto instants or sorceries, Splicer's Skill, but it's expensive to splice and doesn't really synergize with what you're trying to do.)

Blossoming Defense: only one green mana for an instant! It could theoretically pump up your tokens enough for a lethal combat phase, depending on how many creatures you have. The main reason I brought it up though is that in quite a few situations it could be used as an alternative to your Protection cards, although you won't get the card draw or scry effects, which I assume is the primary reason for their inclusion. Similar to this card, though not as good in my opinion, is Dive Down.
Okay, so Enter the Unknown in particular really caught my eye, and is one card I would personally put in the deck, were I to purchase and assemble it to play with my own playgroup.

Comparing it to Explore, it's cheaper, but you lose the flat card draw. HOWEVER, it targets a creature, meaning if it targets Zada, every creature you control will Explore. For each Explore trigger, if the card you reveal from the top of your library is a land, you immediately put it into your hand (note, this is mandatory and doesn't count as drawing a card, which may be useful in some niche situations, such as an opponent controlling a Consecrated Sphinx or Smothering Tithe). You may then play that land (once the stack is empty) thanks to the secondary effect of being able to play an extra land this turn, same as Explore. But unlike Explore, you would get to play an extra land for every creature you control. So that's neat. However, if the card you reveal from exploring is NOT a land, the creature that the spell (or copy) is targeting immediately gets a +1/+1 counter. THEN, you may choose to either put the revealed card back on top of your library, OR into your graveyard. And then you still get to play additional lands for each copy of Enter the Unknown.

What's more, as long as you don't get rid of Elixir of Immortality, you can intentionally put revealed non-land cards that you don't desperately need into your graveyard. This gives you more opportunities to Explore (the keyword) into more lands to play, or more opportunities to buff your creatures, or it could even simply serve as library / graveyard filter.

One more card I'd like to mention in relation to Enter the Unknown is Gaea's Blessing. I don't think it would be worth including without Enter the Unknown, but if run together, could serve as a backup plan / alternative to Elixir of Immortality, since Exploring into it can immediately recover your graveyard into your library, including Gaea's Blessing itself. However, it would almost certainly be a wasted slot by itself (except to fetch Elixir of Immortality but that's still too niche), which is why I'm mentioning it here instead of in its own entry.

All in all, I honestly feel that Enter the Unknown is worth considering the most out of any of the others I've mentioned so far. That said, I don't want you to feel obligated to include it. After all, I haven't playtested the current decklist on TappedOut yet, so I have no idea if it's even a necessary inclusion. You've had a few chances to play and even win, now. It's your deck, and you know it the best, so it's totally up to you.

Crypsis doesn't really synergize with your deck since it doesn't include a card advantage (or similar) effect, but it is a way of safely swinging at opponents or reacting to a creature's targeted ability (or Crypt Rats-esque abilities) without also preventing yourself from targeting your own stuff. It also has the added benefit of untapping all of your creatures, but overall it may be too situational or non-synergistic to put it in the deck. Still, thought it was worth mentioning.
Hundred-Talon Strike: I'm sure you're aware of this card already, I just wanted to be sure. That splice cost seems really nice, considering Tazra herself, tokens made by Battle Screech or Raise the Alarm, and any copies of those you make, would all be able to pay for the splice cost, rather than having to spend mana. The downside is that it forces you to have at least one white creature to pay its splice cost, making it slightly less flexible than some other options. Still, I wanted to at least be sure you were aware of it.
Adverse Conditions is another card that still doesn't quite synergize with what you're doing, and it has CMC 4, which is expensive for your mana curve. Still, it could be simultaneous ramp and token population (of sorts). Cast this when you have a ton of creatures, targeting only Zada, and you immediately get a bunch of untapped 1/1s equal to the number of creatures you already control, which could exponentially grow your board for more Zada triggers, or you can just use them to sac for to pay for more spells.

AceVonDuck on Tazri/Zada

3 years ago

(Hah! TappedOut ate my comment. Let's try again.)

In regards to appreciating the deck, of course, haha! I absolutely adore janky and unique play styles. I get so tired of seeing the same tired deck concepts and "high salt" (according to EDHRec) cards in my playgroup, it's always super refreshing to see new, unconventional ways to play. ALSO HOOOOOOLY SHIT I JUST REALIZED HOW Rite of Replication WORKS WITH ZADA, WOOOOOW! I have no idea why that didn't click when I first saw it in the deck! If you can resolve it, that's so beautifully evil, oh my god!

Er, anyway, regaining my composure, heh. As far as the protection thing goes, it shouldn't be too much of a problem, so long as you're careful with it and only use it to wrap up your comboing or in response to a threat. Did it find solid use (or potential for use) in your matches with your group? I also had another question: is there any reason in particular that you haven't included any enchantments whatsoever? I can't help but wonder how Parallel Lives or Mana Reflection (especially considering you already have Basalt Monolith in the deck) would perform, despite their comparatively expensive CMCs to the rest of your mana curve. I realize they're both a bit pricey to purchase, but oh man, regardless, I can't help but envision Rite of Replication and Zada going off while Parallel Lives is on the field. Again, not sure if there's a specific reason you haven't included enchantments, was just wondering.

One last thing I noted upon reading the entire decklist again: unless I'm missing something, in the deck's current state, Manamorphose, Explore, and most of your token generating cards only get their "as designed" single use before you have to shuffle them back out of your graveyard with Elixir of Immortality and hope to draw them again. Am I missing anything, or is that correct?

Anyway, that's awesome to hear about the win. I'm sure the expressions on your playgroup's faces were priceless!

Here are some cards that came to mind and some others that I stumbled across:

Card Suggestions Show

Anyway, that's all for me today. I'm certain there are plenty more cool or even better cards to include, but if I research any more right now, I'll likely be up all not, haha.

Congrats again on the win! Lemme know what you think of the cards I mentioned. I'll keep my eye on this deck as well as new cards for it, since I really love how silly this concept is.

AceVonDuck on Tazri/Zada

3 years ago

(I'm going to apologize in advance right now, since I was studying for an exam earlier and took some Adderall to help me focus. As a result, this comment is about to get a super wordy. Very sorry.

Reznorboy on Za-Draw Ascendancy (Hidden Commander: Zada)

3 years ago

I've run into the exact same problem as you described, admittedly (lack of creatures, or having too many, and then not having enough mana replenishers during the combo turn). However, I did some research online, and some people (including myself) have come up with quite intriguing solutions.

I think the most competitively viable solution would be this - (and yes, I also now agree that more colors may be both necessary and useful) - tutor for Selvala, Explorer Returned with the buffet of black tutors available, try to play targeting cantrips that give creatures haste (or any other good way of giving her haste works too), then focus on playing the targeting cantrips that untap stuff.

This solves the issue of not having enough mana, and works well because your opponents most likely will be unable to do much with all the cards you're putting in their hand, as you'll most likely win that turn. If you really wanted to be creative, you could play elements of Lantern Control in that deck to optimize your Selvala taps and plan on milling them out, which is great synergy.

Another possibility (this one was not my idea), (also yes, it sounds ridiculous, please bear with me) is - Arcane Tribal. Basically, Arcane is normally terrible. However, with the way the rules are currently built, there just so happens to be some insane interactions with Zada. Say you have, Tazri+Zada and a couple other creatures, and you play Ideas Unbound. Your opponents think "OK? So what?" Now imagine that you Splice on Hundred-Talon Strike. For 2 mana, you just drew 12 cards. If you tap Tazri for the Splice (whatever), target Zada, you will give all creatures the first strike - as well as draw 3 per creature. This can also be applied with other cards, like Desperate Ritual - (of course, there are other splice cards, some you want to target, some not, some you want to play first, some not).

The main issue with this idea is that it requires more mana at the beginning of the combo - and more importantly - lowers consistency. However, what's more epic than playing ARCANE TRIBAL in cEDH? It would also require a lot more skill to use, however, would totally catch people off guard.

One last idea I had (this one is especially half-baked) is Additional Combat Tribal. There happens to be one card, Seize the Day, which both targets a single creature, and gives additional combats (and even has flashback!). One could tutor for it with black, play a lot of creatures with keywords such as vigilance, flying, haste, etc. and simply beat face. Hard. You could even play untapping targeting cantrips and cards that give mana for combats, such as Neheb, the Eternal and Sakiko, Mother of Summer.

Thanks for reading. If either of these sound like good ideas, feel free to try them. Luckily, with 5 colors, there are many, many possibilities, so eventually only one needs to work well to matter.

leflesh on Sack of Feathers

5 years ago

Consider Blessed Breath , Spiritual Visit , Ethereal Haze , Terashi's Grasp , and Crack the Earth for repeatable Protection, (non-flying)spirit token generation, Fog, Disenchant, and 1 Counter Smokestack

Into the Fray and Hundred-Talon Strike are two additional ways to make the previously mentioned Arcane spells gain a friendly target for Feather to trigger.

Reverse830 on

7 years ago

Why not Kodama's Reach instead of Cultivate? While normally they are identical, you do have one "splice onto arcane" card in Hundred-Talon Strike. Making that swap means on rare occasions you can use Hundred-Talon Strike twice while having no detrimental effects when you can't.

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