Key to the City
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander 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
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Penny Dreadful Legal
Pioneer Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vintage Legal

Key to the City

Artifact

, Discard a card: Up to one target creature can't be blocked this turn.

Whenever Key to the city becomes untapped, you may pay . If you do, draw a card.

Crow-Umbra on Alesha, who keeps playing cards

2 weeks ago

Sorry to spam another response, I just read your updated deck description, and I think your gut feeling on removing the +1/+1 counter sub-theme is correct. If you want your creatures to connect, you could use stuff like Spirit Mantle or equipment with Deathtouch or "unblockable", like Basilisk Collar or Whispersilk Cloak to help sneak damage through. Key to the City is a piece of tech used by many Alesha lists as a means to push damage through and also get cards into the yard.

Mark of Asylum could also potentially be a swap for The Wanderer. A bit more resilient to removal.

Another fun subtheme I played around with is to recur creatures that punch very heavily if they connect, like Virtus the Veiled, Raving Dead, and the infamous Master of Cruelties. At one point, I had a Menace subtheme with stuff like Goblin War Drums, Sonorous Howlbonder, and Labyrinth Raptor.

Alesha has a lot of tech available to her, to the point of being a bit overwhelming. I think by the time I retired my Alesha deck, I had tried out like 3-4 build variations. Towards the end, I realized the deck worked better (for me), when Alesha wasn't the primary aggro and reanimation option.

UnleashedHavok on Are You Sure You Want to Do That? V2

4 months ago

Thanks for taking a look Optimator! I appreciate the compliment on my deck. It's pretty heavily inspired by precociousapprentice's list and primer.

I totally get not being able to keep up with WotC's release schedule, that was one of the big reasons why I stepped away from Magic for a bit. That, and the birth of my son a little over 2 years ago lol. Don't know if you know, but the adorable little buggers are time consuming, in the best way.

Now for your suggestions. I really like all of the cards, but not sure whether or not they fit in to the mentality behind this deck and I'll tell you why.

I really like Cut / Ribbons and had not seen it before, but if you look at my card choices, almost everything is at instant speed. I'm already thinking I'm going to cut (hehe) Dusk / Dawn. The reason for this is that I want all of my responses to being attacked to be decisive, and fatal for the aggressor. I do not want to actively agitate the table until I am ready to take control of the game, or win outright. Blowing up people's stuff agitates them, and makes them want retribution. It might be a great card to discard to Key to the City to encourage attacks toward other people at the table, or for a surprise assassination.... hmmmmm. My next question on that would be, what would your suggested cut be to ad in Cut / Ribbons and why, now knowing a bit of the rationale behind the deck.

I have been going back and forth on Exsanguinate, and also Debt to the Deathless. I really like both cards for flavor and use. But I will say that two of the big, swing-y win cons in this deck are Acidic Soil, and Price of Progress. And that is what gives me pause. I will generally get 5-6 lands and then start pitching land cards to Key to the City, assuming I have mana rocks out to supplement the rest of my pool. Pitching lands to Key to the City to allow attacks of my opponents. Encouraging strife, and making it seem as though I am growing weaker. The curve of this deck is low since so many of the answers are 2-3 mana. I've been debating whether or not Exsanguinate would just be a dead draw.

Finally Approach of the Second Sun. This card has absolutely fascinated me since it came out. I love the flavor of the card, the artwork I think is great. Really lovely. It also puts a time-clock on the table, an intense sense of urgency. And I've always thought it would paint a great big target on it's player's forehead. I haven't experienced playing it myself, and haven't been at a table where it has been played so don't know the response to it. To steal from precociousapprentice yet again, the removal in this deck is meant to be surgical, to allow the rest of the table to cultivate their own board states freely as long as I am able to handle them, to appear weak until it is time to take the reins. I'm not sure whether or not Approach of the Second Sun fits in to that.

Again, I am open to discussion. That's what I want from this. I do like the card suggestions, I think they are all solid cards. But I'm not convinced they fit with the mentality of the deck.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Mighty Manotaur

5 months ago

Might I suggest Obsidian Battle-Axe? It equips to Tahngarth for free,gives haste and puts him directly at 7 power.

In my own Minotaur-Voltron (Momo: Twice the horns, twice the fun), I really like Key to the City. Also, Helm of the Host seems like it could do some ridiculous things in here. Another idea as you're already running Arachnogenesis: Obscuring Haze is surprisingly cheap.

shwanerz88 on Hello Beastie

6 months ago

seshiro_of_the_orochi Thanks for some great suggestions! I actually had the Wormhole serpent, cloak, and tidespout tyrant in the original build and had them cut because of various reasons. Dissipation Field is an interesting card I haven't seen yet and might fit well in here. The threat of bouncing might be a better deterrent from attack, then again if they have nice ETB's then maybe they would want that. hmmm, I'll think on that one. Key to the City though, now there is a card that I'm not sure how I didn't think of. It does everything I want. Great suggestion there!

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Hello Beastie

6 months ago

So to answer your question from the Advertise thread, the deck itself doesn't seem to be the problem. Your amount of ramp and interaction looks fine, and it's kind of hard to not play enough value cards in blue.

As seamonsters tend to be massive, maybe you really are getting ganged up on. To prevent this, Propaganda and Dissipation Field might be useful.

Krothuss itself is pretty small. Maybe include some ways to make it unblockable or protected. Whispersilk Cloak seems useful here, and Key to the City is especially cool here, as it helps you set up the transformation on curve and then helps Krothus get through.

Tidespout Tyrant would be a great addition in the fatty department. It's similar to hullbreaker horror, although it's not a seamonster. You could also try Cyclone Summoner as an additional boardwipe. Keiga, the Tide Star and Kokusho, the Evening Star are always great copy targets. And Wormhole Serpent does multiple things the deck wants.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Key equipment for red black …

8 months ago

Key to the City isn't an equipment, but does some great things for voltrons, especially in colours that aren't traditionally great at drawing cards.

Menoninger on Cooking Lessons (Ultra budget with upgrades)

9 months ago

Saccox, that is a very good suggestion. I suppose splashing red would also provide some very useful discard options like Goblin Lore or other legal substitutes for Faithless Looting. I will definitely give Key to the City some testing when I get the chance. The number of lands is definitely not optimised yet. I will try running 18 lands, but since I am not including fetches in this budget deck, I am always very scared of running too many lands. Especially considering the low mana curve.
Thanks for the suggestions! :)

Saccox on Cooking Lessons (Ultra budget with upgrades)

9 months ago

Hi Menoninger,for me in your deck it's necessary more lands and more discard effect. Key to the City?

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