Island Sanctuary

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy 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
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Island Sanctuary

Enchantment

If you would draw a card during your draw step, instead you may skip that draw. If you do, until your next turn, you can't be attacked except by creatures with flying and/or islandwalk.

Worrad75 on Pia-tiful Impulse Control

2 months ago

Keeping a record of the changes I make here.

took out Surge of Salvation for Island Sanctuary

This deck can take some time to assemble a lethal board, and we need a way to dissuade attackers. Surge is a fantastic 'gotcha' combat trick, but it doesn't do much for us if we exile it at sorcery speed. Island sanctuary allows us to trade our card for turn for security; it blocks ground creatures, we print fliers like crazy so flying attackers dont typically scare us, and islandwalk will never matter for us. The card disadvantage isn't nothing, but this deck has plenty of ways to generate advantage from exile.

took out Faithless Looting for Dragon's Rage Channeler

This is simply too much value to ignore. We have 50(!!) noncreature spells in our deck. FL is in there to help generate velocity when we get stuck with our hand, but DRC simply blows it out of the water in terms of card selection. Filling our graveyard is also semi-relevant, as we run Reconstruct History, and having an extra 3/3 flier certainly contributes to our gameplan of smacking our opponents repeatedly.

took out Cursed Mirror for Loran of the Third Path

This swap is somewhat based on goldfishing impressions, which means there's a chance it gets reverted with more reps in a real pod. Cursed Mirror gives us velocity as a ramp piece (albiet at 3 mana), while offering incredible upside to copy something like a Professional Face-Breaker, not to mention your opponents creatures. The issue lies in the makeup of our deck; as currently constructed, we have only 18 creatures, and 10 of them are legendary. This makes the Mirror's upside more of a "hope your opponents have something cool to copy" rather than it's more powerful use of "get one of your effects doubled temporarily" due to the lack of available targets on our own board. While Loran doesn't ramp us, she gives us both interaction and non-exile card draw, both areas that this deck is a bit light on.

took out Cosmic Intervention for Boros Charm

Cosmic intervention was initially included due to Pia's natural synergy with fortell cards. However, the closer you look at situations in which you are likely to need Intervention, you start to realize how next-to-useless that extra Thopter is. Additionally, one of the massive upsides to Intervention is re-enabling ETB effects, which we currently only have 2 of in the deck. Boros Charm on the other hand actually manages to save our board from damage/destroy effects, while also giving us more flexibility. We have a handful of large creatures/effects that benefit from double strike (14 points of lifegain off Sephara, Sky's Blade, anyone?), and if all else fails the 4 life can be meaningful, as this deck tends to deal death by 1000 cuts. Exiling CI off the top at sorcery speed feels like a whiff; exiling BC feels the world is your oyster.

Dropping a Mountain for Land Tax

This is a bit of an experimental swap, as it's possible we actually want to leave more lands in the deck so they can be exiled off the top. This will mean in games where we have LT in our openning hand (the ideal start), we will exile fewer lands and more nonland cards. We'll be playing the lands every turn to be able to play the extra spells, but we'll also miss out on the value of playing lands from exile. That being said, there is undeniable value to be had by being a bit greedy here.

frostbite182 on voltron protection

1 year ago

turkinaa how would I get around card draw with Island Sanctuary? Or is it a “may” ability?

turkinaa on voltron protection

1 year ago

You could Enlightened Tutor and put some more 2 and under instants like Festival or Orim's Chant (side note: you can kick spells on the Isochron Scepter. You could also throw in Island Sanctuary and some of the new equipment creatures. Glory could also work well with your commander.

I have a mono-white voltron deck so see if anything else I'm using could be of help: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/isamuru/

FormOverFunction on Bureaucracy!

1 year ago

I’ve played a number of games now and the deck is a lot of fun! This is the first deck (basically) of mine that has counter-magic in it, so I’ve had to reassess my playing habits, but otherwise it’s loaded with weird interactions that sort of pilot themselves. The commander is really important to get out there, as it will build you a 2/2 Army pretty promptly, and you need to draw a lot in order to get a good amount of theme on the table. Confessor matches up nicely with the draw/discard effects, and your first clue on your turn will get you two cards each turn. The color-hate (like Justice and Sanctimony) can be sort of feels-bad so a few of the games I’ve just sat on them (only justice, come to think of it). Library of Leng and Ivory Tower are always a great team, and Island Sanctuary is buttressed well by drawing on other people’s turns. The downside I hadn’t considered with that, though, is you’re still pretty weak to flying. I managed to use Abbey Matron in the best (only?) way, blocking and then pumping, which sort of felt like unlocking an achievement. Restore the Peace is great both against tokens that are beating you up AND against big baddies that block your 2/2s. Martial Law is one of the best answers to fliers and other trouble, almost like an Oblivion Ring that you can re-target every turn. This post is getting pretty long, so I’m going to wrap it up... but I think you get the notion ;p Thanks for asking MagicMarc!!

TotesMcGoats on Wizzardrix (Kwain, Itinerant Meddler)

2 years ago

VayraTheGatherer Hey, feel free! I posted the deck and primer for a reason! :D For Arcane Artisan, in my own personal experience playing Group Hug Decks, I'm not a huge fan of effects that let my opponents cheat things into play such as Braids, Conjurer Adept, Hypergenesis, or Tempting Wurm. When I used to play these sorts of cards in my Phelddagrif Group Hug deck, what happens is you usually just end up randomly Kingmaking whichever opponent happened to be playing the biggest scariest thing in the hand like an Eldrazi or something. Its never as symmetrical as it seems it should be, you know? That's why I like focusing on card draw for my Group Hugging, you still speed up the game by making sure people hit their land drops and ramp and have action to play, but they still have to put in the work to cast those cards, they don't just get to cheat them for free.

Dimensional Breach feels like an absolutely miserable card to play against, because this will hit every single permanent including lands. Tokens are just gone forever, and players are now forced to slowly get back 1 land or creature or whatever at a time to rebuild their boards. Its like starting the entire game over, and nobody is going to want to sit through that. A much better option I think would be Out of Time, which phases out only creatures as a sort of pseudo-board wipe for a number of turns but then safely returns them all back into play without removing tokens or retriggering any ETB, and most importantly, its ONLY creatures, so no need to replay absolutely everything. Its also why I prefer cards like AEtherize as opposed to Wrath of God because you can be a bit more precise with what to remove, and you're only temporarily bouncing it back to hand to be replayed later, rather than just removing it forever.

Having Hexproof for yourself is nice, but kind of unnecessary I think. Ideally no one should really be targeting you with very many spells since you're far from being the biggest threat at the table. Anything they DO target you with you should most likely have a counterspell for if its a big enough deal, or otherwise if its not actively about to kill you, let it slide. The great thing about Kwain is that we're playing him on Turn 2 every single game, and he should hopefully stick around the whole game, so when we're gaining a life every single turn our life total should be pretty stacked. If there's some sort of infinite damage combo or repeatable trigger that keeps threatening your life total, than that's what we have counterspells and removal for. I like to take a more reactive approach to things, rather than trying to construct an untouchable pillowfort. Its why I don't play Solitary Confinement or Island Sanctuary or Blazing Archon. And if you're worried about burn, cards like Aegis of the Gods or Teyo, the Shieldmage won't actually do much besides eat the first burn spell.

Spiritual Focus is... a weird card. I guess if you want to run it as a metagame decision if someone in your playgroup plays Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Tinybones, Trinket Thief or some other discard focused deck or a lot of wheels like Nekusar, the Mindrazer. But honestly, with the sheer amount of card draw that this deck will provide the entire table, discard decks are going to have a much harder time keeping up, and they're just going to have a bad time. You'll have enough cards in hand that you won't really care to ditch one or two.

As for Nekusar, the Mindrazer and other similar strategies looking to punish card draw... well that's sort of a sticky situation for us since all of our extra card draw is actively hurting everyone except the Nekusar player and helping them a LOT. This is the sort of matchup you really just want to discuss and avoid in Rule 0 conversations, because someone is going to have a miserable time, and its probably the Nekusar player as every single card they play in their deck is a threat that you simply can't allow to resolve to stick around on the board for more than a turn.

I hope this helps :)

Skinken on

2 years ago

Birds is a surprisingly well supported tribe, and flying tribal has been getting a fair bit of support recently. So building birds in commander can be both fun and powerful because you can combine old and new cards.

A creature has to be a Legendary creature to be legal as your commander. The classic option for birds would be Kangee, Aerie Keeper . Some other options that are more "Flying tribal" than bird tribal could be Kangee, Sky Warden (a very budget-friendly option), Isperia the Inscrutable , Akim, the Soaring Wind , Derevi, Empyrial Tactician or Alela, Artful Provocateur .

Now you should decide whether you want cards that support having Birds specifically: Aven Brigadier , Celestial Gatekeeper , Crookclaw Elder , Seaside Haven , Soulcatchers' Aerie , Airborne Aid , Migratory Route , Animal Sanctuary etc. Or if you just want cheap flyers that may or may not be birds and just play flying tribal: Battle Screech , Favorable Winds , Gravitational Shift , Gust of Wind , Island Sanctuary , Kangee's Lieutenant , Lofty Denial , Pride of the Clouds , Rally of Wings , Sephara, Sky's Blade , Siani, Eye of the Storm , Skycat Sovereign , Soulcatcher , The Raven's Warning , Thunderclap Wyvern , Tide Skimmer , Warden of Evos Isle , Watcher of the Spheres , Waterkin Shaman , Windstorm Drake , Winged Words , Battle Screech .

Your list has a lot of pretty bad cards that don't support your strategy. I would cut Healing Salve , Resupply , Take Up Arms , Call to Mind , Survival Cache , Refurbish (has 4 targets in your deck and no matter what you get you pay more mana than you should), Siegecraft etc. Pure lifegain spells are bad unless you build around them, and this is supposed to be a bird/flying deck right? Cards that make tokens without flying are not great because your lords and synergy don't make them better. So even though Raise the Alarm is a solid magic card, you would prolly rather have like a Mistral Charger because you can build synergy around it.

Removal is always good. You can almost never have too much of it. However, if you are really cool, you can try to play removal and card draw that is flavorful and synergistic as well: Ravenform , Wing Shards , Aerial Assault , Swan Song , Winged Words , Gust of Wind , Lofty Denial . Also, sol ring is great but more ramp is usually a good idea in commander, and Azorius Keyrune is also a bird!

Good luck with the screechy dudes!

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