Isochron Scepter
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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
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
PreDH Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Isochron Scepter

Artifact

Imprint — When this enters the battlefield, you may exile an instant card with converted mana cost 2 or less from your hand. (The exiled card is imprinted onto this artifact.)

, : You may copy the exiled card. If you do, you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.

theNeroTurtle on Should I Keep Aura Shards …

1 week ago

If you are playing it in several decks that would be the only reason for removing it. I don't like it when my decks feel too similar. That is why I only run Sensei's Divining Top in two of many decks. It can make the decks start to feel to similar.

Same with Isochron Scepter. I only run that in one deck because it could make them feel like they bleed together too much.

Other than mana obviously, I feel like the only cards (for me) that I am okay with seeing repeat use in any deck would be tutors of any color. Come to think of it, that might be why I like tribal so much. It forces you outside of a repeat zone when building.

One cool Alt-win card to look at would be Mayael's Aria.

theNeroTurtle on *Dumpster Diving Racoon [Primer]

1 week ago

Profet93, I love Sensei's Divining Top and Isochron Scepter. Only reason they aren't a fit is because I play them in another deck. There are many cards that I am okay with playing across multiple decks, but both of those can make your decks feel too similar. Great suggestions. Most of my Territory Control cards are instant speed, so I feel like Defense Grid buts me in a bind. I am also not so much a spell slinger. If you look (don't have to), most of my stuff is attrition or Stax. This is newish to me too... hens asking people to take a look see.

Profet93 on *Dumpster Diving Racoon [Primer]

1 week ago

theNeroTurtle

Just like Last_Laugh [hope you're doing well], spellslinger is outside my wheel house.

Defense Grid might be worth looking into to protect your combo, though it does make your instant speed interaction more difficult to cast. Really depends on how much you prioritize protection over your glass cannon over interaction. And at the risk of being hypocritical...

Snuff Out and Force of Despair - Manaless instant speed interaction.

Funny enough, with all your 0 drops, aetherflux would be fun to see, but it would spread the deck too far in a different direction.

Sensei's Divining Top - Cheap, useful, especially with mystic forge. If you were to add an artifact cost reducer (like Cloud Key), then it could be a fun infinite combo to draw your entire deck and burn your opponents alive with your commander on board. Though, most of your artifacts are free, so the synergy's value is lost.

Thoughts on Thought Vessel?

Isochron Scepter?

These are more fringe but just wanted to throw everything at you and see if they tickle your fancy.

Beespair on Rule the Galaxy [Kaervek, the Punisher]

1 month ago

Profet93

Isochron Scepter is great, can make an instant occur way more times than I normally could and the instant imprinted can change depending on the playgroup.

I agree with what you said about Cabal Ritual, never really had the chance to play it in the games I played with the deck, but the graveyard does not often stay with 7 cards in it. Switched it for Sign in Blood, as you've mentioned, more draw could help and at the same time I like cards that can do more than one thing in EDH.

Vampiric Tutor is not really a budget issue, as I'm proxying the deck, but I have friends in my playgroup that don't and I try to keep it to cards they would normally have. I'm already justifying Imperial Seal because of its name and Word of Command because it's a fun card to use and it's mostly the lack of printing that justify it's high price.

I removed these cards from the deck:

Agatha's Soul Cauldron: Although fun and a cheap crime, I rarely get useful activated abilities, the +1 to toughness was it's biggest use IMO.

Cabal Ritual: As you've mentioned, the threshold wouldn't really happen often.

Languish: Yahenni's Expertise is just more fun, same CMC and the 4 to 3 difference doesn't change much of the purpose behind the card.

Ulcerate: Cheap removal, but I already have a lot and this one was the weakest IMO.

Cabal Stronghold: As you've mentioned, 17 basics is too little.

Swamp: Removed one swamp to fit an additional non-basic land. Cabal Stronghold is gone, no need to keep that many basics.

I then added these cards:

Isochron Scepter: So many cool options, just neglected it when deck-building because I've been too tainted by the Dramatic Reversal combo and I only think about it in this situation.

Sign in Blood: One more card draw, can also burn enemies and with this deck's recursion can be re-used.

Yahenni's Expertise: Just a cooler Languish.

Buried Ruin: Nice recursion on stuff I can't normally recur because it's colorless.

Deserted Temple: As you've mentioned, crime, politics, ramp with Cabal Coffers.

Sudden Spoiling: Cool tech against control and protected creatures.

I did not add Helm of Obedience, felt like the 4 CMC is a bit too high. I will try it in the deck to see if I want to change something for it.

I did not add both flash cards because I can cast stuff from the graveyard at instant speed if needed with a crime. There's also not much I'm thinking of that I would really want to get that is not an instant. I might be missing some situations though.

Profet93 on Rule the Galaxy [Kaervek, the Punisher]

1 month ago

Beespair

Isochron Scepter - Reuse about 1/4th of your deck.

You don't have enough basics to justify cabal stronghold

Do you feel you have enough draw?

Sudden Spoiling - Split second, super useful tech.

Yahenni's Expertise > Languish?

SaberTech on Dissident Storm

2 months ago

Alright. It's harder to pull off a storm deck in Commander but there are things you can do.

The easiest way to storm in Commander is with the Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal combo. The Scepter copies the imprinted spell, but you cast the copy so it counts towards your storm count. Running this combo requires you to run a bunch more mana rocks though, because you need to be able to produce at least 2 mana off of the rocks just to get the engine going, plus more mana if you want to produce infinite mana off of the combo. I don't know what your budget is like or if your group allows proxies, but at higher level tables you'd be looking to run cards like Mana Vault and Grim Monolith since those produce 3 mana all on their own. Beyond that though, you would definitely want to be running the talismans like Talisman of Dominance. Everflowing Chalice is another good option for storm because it's on rate if you only kick it once or you can just play it for free un-kicked to increase your storm count. Whichever rocks you end up running, you'll need a good number in the deck to support the combo.

The Dramatic Scepter combo also works well with Wishclaw Talisman. Activate the Talisman, then with the ability on the stack you activate the Scepter to untap the Scepter, the Talisman, and your mana rocks. While the first ability is still on the stack, activate the Talisman again and repeat the cycle. You'll be able to use up all 3 wish counters yourself and in the end you just pass a useless Talisman to the opponent, although after tutoring three cards you should just be winning that turn. The combo also just kills if Guttersnipe is out.

Running a bunch of mana artifacts (that don't enter tapped) has another benefit in that you can run cards like Paradoxical Outcome, Hurkyl's Recall, and Retract. You get to tap your rocks for mana, bounce them back to hand, and then recast them to increase your storm count and hopefully even net extra mana, although that requires more artifacts that produce more mana than they cost like Sol Ring, Mana Vault, and Grim Monolith.

Another combo card you could be running is Chain of Smog, which combos with Professor Onyx as long as you keep targeting yourself with the Chain and its copies. The copies won't count towards your storm count, but they will get you a bunch of treasure tokens off of Storm-Kiln Artist. You would have an empty hand, but you would have the mana to cast Kess and then cast a card from your graveyard. Ideally, you would be running wheel effects like Wheel of Fortune to immediately refill your hand and keep your plays going. Storm decks typically like to run wheel effects. On the more budget end of things, you could at least be running Windfall and similar effects so that you can match your opponents' hand sizes after emptying your own.

Chain of Smog + Archmage Emeritus will basically let you mill through your deck at the cost of emptying your hand. You'll be forced to discard the cards that you draw off of Emeritus. However, If you run a copy of Unearth in the deck then you can draw and discard your deck, use Kess to cast Unearth from your graveyard, and bring back Thassa's Oracle for the win. It's a risky line though because you won't have access to any counterspells to protect it.

Unearth is still worth considering for the deck in general since it can get back several relevant creatures in case they are countered, it's a 1 mana spell for storm count, and at worst you can cycle it away to draw a card.

Another combo I can think of based off of cards already in your deck is God-Eternal Kefnet + Scroll Rack + Time Warp (or any other extra turn card that doesn't exile itself). You use Scroll Rack to make sure that Time Warp is the top card of your deck. When you draw, Kefnet sees it and copies it. You cast the copy, and then before the end of your turn you use Scroll Rack to put Time Warp from your hand back on top of your library. Rinse and repeat for infinite turns.

Beyond that is typical storm stuff:

If all of that is sounding really expensive, Stella Lee, Wild Card and Veyran, Voice of Duality are known commanders for their own unique storm decks. You can find lists at various budget point for them online. Zada, Hedron Grinder can also play as a budget, glass-cannon style goblin storm deck.

Tryptic on Wizards on Steroids

5 months ago

It looks good, but Vivi and Rhystic Study are concerning. Those cards are on a higher power level than the rest of the deck. They kinda signal that your deck is competitive, and should be matched against strong decks.

Other than that, I would recommend some spells that cast multiple times. Flashback, Rebound, returning spells from graveyard to hand, or maybe an Isochron Scepter effect would help you out.

Skysurfer on No

6 months ago

Isochron Scepter would loop your silences

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