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.

Discussion (51)

FormOverFunction on Need advice on a Jund …

2 weeks ago

A good friend of mine makes GREAT use of Key to the City in one of his “fill my own GY with creatures” decks. I’d recommend that above all else, as it gives a creature evasion AND can also help you not miss a land drop.

Meachman on Bruse/Kediss

1 month ago

With limited card draw in your colors, it might be worth playing some more cantrips that buff Bruse and replace themselves.

Bestial Fury and Fists of Flame give much-needed trample. Blindblast, Panic Spellbomb, Panic, Rile, and Stun get past lone blockers, while Key to the City gets past anyone. Shelter protects or allows to get past certain colors of blockers. Dragon Mantle gives you a big buff. Burnout prevents tricksy blue spells in combat or counters against your stuff.

Mind Stone and Commander's Sphere give you mana early and card draw late. Scrabbling Claws lets you hate on graveyards and draw if you need.

And since you have two commanders, Tome of Legends is doubly good.

PyroSwardsman on Yuriko Test

2 months ago

The deck is looking pretty good. I like the creature base you have chosen, there are a couple questionable creatures though. Cloudreader Sphinx seems kind of bad in this deck. If you just want a flying scryer, perhaps Sphinx of Foresight, Prognostic Sphinx, Stormwing Entity, or Siani, Eye of the Storm.

Passwall Adept is just not good enough. its too much of a resource drain. Opt is not helpful in this deck since you immediately draw the card after scrying. Cunning Evasion wont do much good I am thinking since most of your creatures wont be blocked anyway.

In my opinion, you need a few less low CMC cards and a few more high CMC that you can use to get Yuriko damage in. For cuts, I would start by looking at any creatures that cost CMC 2/3 that dont provide value other than being unblockable (Invisible Stalker, Vault Skirge (love that card btw). I would then look at replacing sorceries with instants where possible. Darksteel Pendant and Crystal Ball are not good enough in my opinion and are too much of a resource investment unless there is some sort of artifact strategy I am missing. Dimir Keyrune provides interesting utility but is inefficient. Consider Arcane Signet instead or perhaps even Dark Ritual. Thran Dynamo is fairly efficient for cost to mana provided but it seems most of your mana needs are for color. Key to the City is for yuriko after she is out I assume.. I would probably run Aqueous Form instead because it has a scry effect on attack which is pretty desirable.

Here are some cards to consider in not much particular order:

Zhalfirin Void

Moonring Island

Chromatic Orrery (high cmc and provides a lot of mana)

Mission Briefing (can add card to graveyard for delve and recast Brainstorm which is arguably one of the best cards in the deck)

Condescend

Chain of Vapor (way to return a card to hand as well as an opponents card or cards)

Archaeomancer (can get brainstorm back and can be returned to hand with ninjitsu potentially)

Harsh Scrutiny

Shrieking Drake

Archetype of Imagination

Flood of Tears (this is a pet card of mine. You can return a bunch of cheap creatures and then put out something big like a Chromatic Orrery)

Lim-Dul's Vault

Scroll Rack (spendy but so good)

Soothsaying

Spire Owl

Diabolic Vision

Index

Spy Network

Trickery Charm (does multiple things you want)

Beseech the Queen

The Magic Mirror

The Cauldron of Eternity

Deep-Sea Kraken

Avatar of Woe

Void Beckoner

Dead Drop

Tombstalker

Curse of the Cabal

Connive / Concoct

Grozoth (requires you to build around it to be worthwhile but can be good)

Scion of Darkness

Treasure Cruise

Baral's Expertise

FormOverFunction on Wife 2.0

3 months ago

A friend of mine has made GREAT use of Key to the City in his Feldon deck - give it a look!

SerBorksaLot on Akatsuki, the Horizon's Shadow

3 months ago

IMHO, I think you need to swap out some low-drops for evasion, you don't have a lot of bounce/recursion to re-Ninjitsu your big fatties. I'd recommend Key to the City or Dauthi Embrace. Crystal Shard if you want to lean towards more bounce.

ellie-is on Ball Lightning Never Dies

3 months ago

Fun deck! I do feel like you probably need more creatures and more things to do before you get to 3 mana. Key to the City is probably the card you want to take out to make room for others, and you definitely want a fourth Ball Lightning. Might want to consider Spark Elemental as it synergizes with Call of the Death-Dweller in a way the big balls don't (you can actually return two of them with it due to the low cmc).

Finally, I'd say you need a playset of Thunderkin Awakener in this kind of deck. It does what Unearth does, but every single turn its in play. It's the card that made this archetype viable in the first place (not top tier, but at least tournament playable). Even if it dies attacking, it at least cost you one less mana to do than call of the death dweller did. To make room for it you might want to rethink the heavy discard strategy of cards like Ransack the Lab, discarding just to reanimate in a card that's going to die at the same turn doesn't seem like the best use of resources.

Hope that helped!

Optimator on Giant's Deck

3 months ago

Next step is card-draw and card-advantage. Unfortunately, the Boros colors are the worst at drawing cards. Graveyard recursion is a type of card advantage, so Colfenor's Urn can count. I've never seen that card before! Nice find and good instincts!

Here are some options for you.

First up, the cards I own that I'm willing to part with:

Seer's Sundial - Staff of Nin - Farsight Mask - Key to the City - Infiltration Lens - Mask of Memory - Tome of Legends - Outpost Siege - Khorvath's Fury - Humble Defector - Chandra, Flamecaller - Magus of the Wheel

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Cards I don't have that you should consider:

Tectonic Giant is mandatory! He's so good! Protector of the Crown is on-theme too--highly recommend.

Bonders' Enclave would be worth picking up, I think.

Browbeat - Loreseeker's Stone - Arcane Encyclopedia - Vance's Blasting Cannons  ^Flip - Ignite the Future - Reforge the Soul - Wheel of Fate - Mind's Eye (used to be the gold-standard! Very mana-inefficient though) - Icon of Ancestry (interesting choice since it has the anthem) - Rogue's Gloves - Well of Lost Dreams (great choice with your commander!) - Coveted Jewel (ramp and draw! Unreliable and mana-expensive, but chaotic and fun!) - Mangara, the Diplomat - Runehorn Hellkite - Dragon Mage - Knollspine Dragon - Herald's Horn - Endless Atlas (a bit suspect in two-color decks unless your colors are very skewed or you have lots of Renegade Map-type cards) - Bag of Holding - Arch of Orazca - Geier Reach Sanitarium - Mazemind Tome

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Underworld Breach, Sunbird's Invocation, and Stolen Strategy might count as card-advantage, should you feel jaunty. Stolen Strategy is definitely a fun card and get you fodder for Brion's throwing.

Howling Mine + Inspiring Statuary is kinda funny. Probably not worth it though.

abby315 on United States Marine Kor | Akiri, Fearless Voyager

6 months ago

I have almost zero suggestions because I never run Equipment decks, just want to point out that Akiri's ability triggers for each player you attack, so ideally you have 4 creatures attacking 4 different opponents. I like that you put in the living weapon Equipments for this reason! Maybe Ancestral Blade would be a good fit as well? Captain's Claws is a little underwhelming but it helps gets tokens on the field for future turns. Alternatively, Kemba, Kha Regent.

Here are a few options that might help you get through any defenses:
Break Through the Line
Key to the City
Signal Pest
Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner
Wings of Hubris

Also, this is a good time to pick up Stoneforge Mystic and play it.

I second the above comment, also: the new auto-equip cards seem really good. I don't think we've seen the red one, but the white one seems like it fits the bill.