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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 |
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 |
Standard Brawl | Legal |
Tiny Leaders | Legal |
Vanguard | Legal |
Vintage | Legal |
Rules Q&A
Hypnotic Sprite
Creature — Faerie
Flying
(You may cast Hypnotic Sprite from exile if you sent it on an adventure.)
Mesmeric Glare
Instant — Adventure
Counter target spell with converted mana cost/mana value 3 or less.
(Then send this card on an Adventure in exile. You may cast the creature portion from exile.)
(You may cast Mesmeric Glare for from anywhere that you have the permission to cast this, then exile it on an adventure instead of putting it into your graveyard. When you have not chosen to cast Mesmeric Glare, this card is treated only as Hypnotic Sprite in whatever zone it is in.)
(When not exiled on an adventure, Adventure cards function identically to modal double faced cards when regarding to the interactions of cards that look at them or attempt to cast them.)
jdogz32 on Lofty Lions
1 year ago
This deck looks really good. The only thing I'm going to say is I'd take out Thraben Watcher for something like Brazen Borrower or Hypnotic Sprite on your current 20 lands you might have troubles getting 4 in a game.
legendofa on
1 year ago
BSP If you're not having fun anymore, and you believe it's time for you to step away, then I completely support you, and wish you good luck in whatever the future brings you. A hobby shouldn't feel like a chore.
But for whoever reads this later, anecdotally, I haven't had the overall experience of a 25% failure rate for mana, even in ramp-shy mono-blue or blue/red decks. I've had that problem with individual decks, and sometimes it just doesn't resolve to my satisfaction, and the deck comes apart. But more often than not, even in low-budget super-casual decks, all it takes is a little tweaking.
To use this deck as an example, for smoothing out the mana, I would go down to 25 lands, drop some of the more restricted cards like Hypnotic Sprite, and add some one-mana cards and some draw. If you have a playset each of Opt and Witching Well, two inexpensive commons, you will see far more lands over the course of a game if you keep coming up short on lands. With those same two playsets, if you're consistently mana flooding, you can stem the flood and find the cards you actually need.
While I agree that the mana system introduces a layer of randomness that most games don't have, managing the randomness is an essential part of the game. I believe that almost all card games, from Uno to Hearts, Go Fish, cribbage, poker, whatever, are ultimately about controlling the randomness of a shuffled deck and predicting the advantages and disadvantages of other people, and in Magic, I suggest that the deck builder has a unique level of control over these factors. (I'm trying to lay out my opinions without being preachy or patronizing. It's not my intent to come across like that.)
Again, your presence is your choice, and you know when you're ready to walk away. Take care, have fun in whatever you choose to do, and feel free to stop by and chat whenever you want. Cheers!
legendofa on None
3 years ago
As I understand, a card like Hypnotic Sprite can be used in a deck that has Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion. But can Lurrus cast the adventure side, Mesmeric Glare, from the graveyard, or can it only be cast as a creature through Lurrus's ability? My interpretation is that Mesmeric Glare is an instant, not a permanent, so only the creature side can be cast this way, but I want to confirm this.
carpecanum on Higure, the Still Here
3 years ago
Draining Whelk and Hypnotic Sprite become reusable counter spells. They have flying so you can usually Ninjitsu off of them. Faerie Duelist is useful.
If you run out of Ninjas Feldon's Cane or something to refill your library could help.
Higure could do some serious commander damage with Octopus Umbra
TheVectornaut on Blue/White Life and Defenders
3 years ago
I think a good place to start would be to evaluate what goals are the most important for your deck while making sure you don't have too many ideas that compete against each other. When I look at the deck now, I can see the general idea of a U/W control list that takes advantage of freeze and lifegain to prolong the fight until you can win. However, I see some major problems with the plan as it is now.
First, the deck lacks a clear win condition at the end of all the control. You'll either need to chip away over the course of a slow game with your smaller creatures or hope you have enough freeze effects to get your big guys in late-game. Control deck usually opt for some type of haymaker that can reliably close the game. Some like AEtherling and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are designed to protect themselves, some like Celestial Colonnade and Shark Typhoon place emphasis on evasion, some like Torrential Gearhulk and Snapcaster Mage give you as much value as possible, and some like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Teferi, Time Raveler deny your opponents of counterplay. There's a lot of overlap within those categories and not all of these cards will be played as a wincon, but having a clear plan to win is better than only playing to not lose. The closest cards you have are probably Serpent of Yawning Depths and Archipelagore. Sea monsters are certainly a fine casual deck but slotting them into something else can be awkward at best and ineffectual at worst.
The second problem I see is the missed potential of your chosen colors combined with your chosen tribe. Right now, you have very few ways to take advantage of the clerics in the deck. Clerics are intended to be W/B since you get access to powerful new tools like Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, Taborax, Hope's Demise, and Cleric of Life's Bond along with classics like Sin Collector, High Priest of Penance, and Skirsdag High Priest. The lifegain/drain synergy in clerics also benefits from orzhov colors to play threats like Angel of Destiny, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Marauding Blight-Priest, Speaker of the Heavens, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Twilight Prophet, Pious Evangel Flip, Drana's Emissary, and Cruel Celebrant.
Incidentally, black also synergizes quite well with tapdown effects because of Assassinate cards like Royal Assassin, Deathbringer Liege, and Murderous Compulsion, although white does have its share of Vengeance with Sunblast Angel, Deadeye Harpooner, and Swift Response. Anyway, now that I'm on this tangent, it's worth mentioning that including strong freeze effects is important if you want to make such an underused mechanic work. I'm partial to Dungeon Geists and Icefall Regent as permanent taps, but there's also Guardian of Tazeem, Niblis of Frost, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Time of Ice, Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Frost Titan, and Hands of Binding. Alternatively you can use cheaper cards that can retap a creature each turn like Gideon's Lawkeeper, Blinding Souleater, Fatestitcher, Hidden Strings, and Minister of Impediments. The final category I'll mention are other cards that take advantage of tapping enemy creatures like Palliation Accord and Verity Circle, except I'd only ever recommend the latter.
In summary, I think you should decide whether you're more interested in clerics or in freeze since they don't synergize with each other that well. For clerics, switching to black and taking advantage of lifedrain and sacrifice is advisable. For freeze control, find ways to abuse tapping, implement a strong win condition, and generally include more card draw and countermagic. If you are dead set on combining these styles, I'd at least invest in some tribal support cards to give the clerics more impact than just weakly contributing to the party mechanic. Adaptive Automaton, Door of Destinies, Obelisk of Urd, and Coat of Arms are some popular options. Finally, if your budget doesn't allow you to purchase many new cards, prioritizing the acquisition of additional copies of your strongest but cheapest cards is a good way to upgrade. For this deck, I think those cards are Attended Healer, Cleric of Chill Depths, Hypnotic Sprite, Kor Celebrant, Luminarch Aspirant, Queen of Ice, Shepherd of Heroes, Skyclave Cleric Flip, Concerted Defense, Dovin's Veto, Negate, Inscription of Insight, Staggering Insight, Trapped in the Tower, and maybe Silundi Vision Flip. Good luck with your build and let me know if you have any questions!
Balaam__ on Ferngully (Help Wanted!)
4 years ago
Thanks for the input, Jackfrost23 and sac_ld. Much appreciated. I’m relatively inexperienced in the game, so I’m always looking for ways to improve.
I had initially considered Faerie Seer for that coveted 1 drop slot, but ideally I think a Thoughtseize is the best Turn 1 play. The ability to scry from the Seer would be nice, but I don’t feel justified in removing anything to make room for them. And after the first couple turns their inherent value plummets. They can’t be flashed in, and once Bitterblossom enters play they’re superseded by the tokens.
Hypnotic Sprite came to my attention just as I put the finishing touches to the deck. I briefly considered retooling it, but decided against it. It’s a high utility card, to be sure, but the lack of flash is what did it in for me. I designed this build to be highly reactive; most of the cards can be played on the opponent’s turn if necessary. Hypnotic Sprite absolutely could (and should) find its way into another faerie deck, maybe a mono blue one if I ever get around to building one.
sac_ld on Ferngully (Help Wanted!)
4 years ago
I've been tinkering with something similar, been trying to up the creature count by running Faerie Seer as a 1 drop Faerie and Hypnotic Sprite as more main board counter spells
Shadoobie on The God Pharaoh's Gifts
4 years ago
fatalzintomyum Oh wow. I totally forgot about Iona, Shield of Emeria. That's a great suggestion because we effective way to lock out our opponent on turn 4. It wouldn't deal with the board at the moment, but preventing almost any further action could often win the game on the spot. If I were aiming to make the deck as competitive as possible, I'd probably cut Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Zetalpa, Primal Dawn, and 1 Angel of Invention. For a 3 and 3 split. Honestly, 4 Iona isn't out of the question. However, since I am trying to play this among fellow budget friends. I'd rather not hard lock them out of the game if possible. Unless, they anger me of course. Then I'll need a playset. >:D
I agree Modern is likely outside the power level for God-Pharaoh's Gift or at least in this shell. Unfortunately, I typically play Modern with my group so I wanted to essentially upgrade a Pioneer deck. I'm making that attempt, but that might be the final conclusion.
Balaam__ Ya... I agree the main weakness of this deck is just how easy it is to side board in both artifact and graveyard hate against it. To be perfectly honest, I don't think there's a perfect solution. For Leyline of the Void the best answer I currently have access to is Deputy of Detention or Brazen Borrower, but like you said that's only a temporary solution. I agree counterspells are the best potential solution for artifact hate. Essentially, becoming a jank UW Control with a GPG. I could see playing Dovin's Veto, Aether Gust, and Spell Pierce. Or maybe even some lesser used ones like Hindering Light/Keep Safe or Hypnotic Sprite. If I had the budget Force of Negation. What would you suggest?