Leonin Arbiter

Leonin Arbiter

Creature — Cat Cleric

Players can't search libraries. Any player may pay {{2}} for that player to ignore this effect until end of turn.

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Legality

Format Legality
Leviathan Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Modern Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Limited Legal
Unformat Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Legacy Legal
Custom Legal
2019-10-04 Legal
Vintage Legal
1v1 Commander Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Oathbreaker Legal

Leonin Arbiter occurrence in decks from the last year

Latest Decks as Commander

Leonin Arbiter Discussion

TriusMalarky on First ever EDH deck... help?

1 week ago

When it comes to EDH, I like to use a 5-point building strategy. This includes

  • Lands(largely fixing)

  • Ramp(the higher power stuff)

  • Card draw

  • Win Condition

  • Interaction

Every card in your deck should be in one of those 5 slots. Additionally, I consider cards like Fellwar Stone, Signets, Talismans and Arcane Signet to fit largely in the 'land' slot. They're there for ramp, yes, but they're also largely there for color fixing.

Also, your win condition should be fairly compact. You can take a combo route, or you can have a couple specific cards that can win the game on their own or with a little support.

In discard themes . . . you don't get all that much. All the discard payoffs that help in other formats are too slow in EDH.

So I'd take the Pox plan -- use Smallpox, Pox, Hymn to Tourach, Wrench Mind and Vicious Rumors to throttle your opponent's hands. Use spells like Deafening Silence, Rule of Law, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Leonin Arbiter and Aven Mindcensor to prevent your opponents from getting back on their feet. Then, hit them with some win con of your choice. Make it quick, though, because they will eventually get out of your lock and come for your throat.

Spirits on Arahbo, Xenagos... for Cats EDH

1 week ago

Thinking of the following changes:

Seek Glory (Or whatever! from Kaldheim) | Replacing Archangel of Thune to Tutor Heliod, Sun-Crowned

Time of Need | Replacing Spike Feeder to Tutor Heliod, Sun-Crowned

Armored Skyhunter | Replacing Regal Caracal

Recruiter of the Guard | Replacing Greater Good to Tutor Walking Ballista

Feline Sovereign | Replacing Aura Shards to increase cat count (will decrease with land)

Branchloft Pathway  Flip | Replacing Leonin Arbiter to increase land count (cats increased above)

LitchOubliette on Commander Staples Cube

1 month ago

Changelog (22/11/2020)

White

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Multicolored

Colorless

Mana Fixing

plakjekaas on Opposition Agent needs a preemptive …

2 months ago

SynergyBuild

The post I responded to described it as "That is the world we live in now" which sounds like Jay pictured it to be the only one as well, so I ran with that to show where I didn't agree with that vision. I don't think that magic without searching your library is as bad as this thread, and many others about this card, make it look. It's another thing to play around, just like you do with counterspells, boardwipes and carddraw denial. And it already was before this card. Yes, Opposition Agent is better than Aven Mindcensor or Leonin Arbiter, but search hate isn't new, taking other players' spells isn't new, even searching your opponents' library for a spell to steal isn't new. It's never been done this efficient, but shooting it down before it's released to see what the actual impact is, which was the purpose of this thread, is something I don't agree with. I think there's an upside to this card existing in the format, even though I'd rather see it toned down a little.

I'd have loved it if the card had only said: "you control your opponents when they search their libraries", so the impact of the card would be higher as more tutors would be played at the table. The theft part is a little gratuitous, but will force a shift in the meta and even playstyle just because of the huge blowout of not handling an opposing Opposition Agent the right way. It intrudes on what's the most powerful right now, and I don't really see how that's a bad thing.

The Maralen hard lock is the only real disgusting thing, but like with Iona, Shield of Emeria, I suspect if it will be as problematic as pictured, they will ban the lock piece instead of the utility piece.

plakjekaas on Opposition Agent needs a preemptive …

2 months ago

Yeah, no. I'm not buying it. I think a lot more players than you assume, play the game to play the game, and just don't like to lock up tables in the magnitude you're suggesting. Because the way you picture it, there will be no decks left not playing blue or black in the world.

I will not be jamming Hullbreacher in my temur landfall deck, Opposition Agent will not make the cut for Rankle, Master of Pranks, nor for Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire (excellent answer right there in the command zone btw). Commander players all over the world like to play suboptimal decks with janky combos, tokens, big creatures, tribes, any way to personalize the experience and make it fun to play. The problems you are projecting are only for tables that rely on their tutors to do anything they want to, with only interaction, tutors, and instant, hard-to-interact-with win-the-game combo pieces in their deck.

Which is currently the most powerful way to play magic in EDH, because you're playing singleton. But not really, because every tutor counts as every other card in your deck that it can find. OP agent, like Aven Mindcensor, Stranglehold,Mindlock Orb and Leonin Arbiter, will absolutely WRECK cEDH tables, nobody will disagree with that. If you can't answer a 3/2 with your hand and/or boardstate, without searching your library, or if your deck can't win without its Thassa's Oracle, yes, then this card is a major problem for you.

But in the top 100 cards on EDHrec, there's 16 that get hosed by OP agent. 9 of them only search your library for land(s). If that was enough to be banned from a format, Null Rod and Collector Ouphe would have been banned ages ago, because almost every deck plays mana rocks (23 out of 100 are hosed by those). Getting your stuff stolen feels bad, however, so this will immediately make the top Salt Cards list on EDHrec.

It sounds like only the most powerful decks and tables are not ready for the impact of this card, the paradigm shift that searching your library to find exactly what you need at any time, can be answered now, and might no longer be the best thing to do in any situation, it might even lose you the game now. The rest of the world, who can just cast a 6-power creature from their hand, or the command zone, and start beating the player who forbids them to play their deck until he is no more, along with the other 2 players who don't have an OP agent in play and like to see it gone, will shrug and consider this the next unfun stax piece, like Stasis, Winter Orb, Armageddon, Cursed Totem, Drannith Magistrate, Notion Thief, Narset, Parter of Veils, Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top, Glacial Chasm and others that have mostly been self-restricted at 90% of all EDH playgroups in the world, but not banned.

So to preemptively ban this card because a small subset of commander metas around the world will have a hard time dealing with it, is hard for me to get behind, especially if that's the same subset that will have a Force of Will, an Assassin's Trophy, a Cyclonic Rift and/or a Mystical Tutor to find those or a different answer with OP agent on the stack.

Gleeock on Opposition Agent needs a preemptive …

2 months ago

StopShot a 3 cmc stopper of fetchlands? That's not much of a case for casual breaking either. Leonin Arbiter taxes this at 2 cmc & often is just either removal bait or has pretty minimal game impact when it's all said & done. I'm obviously with skoobysnackz on this one, as I posted about the same thing... Probably some metas feel that this is format-wrecking because they are used to their tutor-rich & endgame-combo rich styles of play. Whereas I have several decks & casual metas where this guy is a 3cmc do next to nothing card (maybe ground blocker?). Maybe it is good to shake things up? How many hoops do you have to jump through with this if you're playing it in a casual meta with about 0 synergistic or combo-cons? Yeah, ok you can search through my Blim, Comedic Genius deck.. did you find a wincon? If anything, the most offense this card is committing is wasting people's time if used wrong. Maralen is corner case (I think I'm the only one in meta who's used her). If she is commander she will be hated out likity-split

TotesMcGoats on Opposition Agent needs a preemptive …

2 months ago

Yea, you are absolutely overreacting. Is it kinda dumb that it steals your opponent's tutors? Yea. But you'll probably only get 1 off of it when you flash it in. And it could literally get killed in response. Its not as bas as it looks. Opposition Agent is fine. Dumb, but fine. Play counterspells, play removal, pay attention to your opponent's having open mana, or just Rule 0 it with your playgroup if you all hate it.

The ONLY thing I'm ACTUALLY a bit worried about is Maralen of the Mornsong. Maralen I could see getting a ban just so that we can avoid another Leovold situation. Opposition Agent alone isn't "the most disgusting card ever printed", but when you can't draw, can't tutor, you're slowly killing yourself, and your opponent gets to play everyone else's cards, NO ONE is going to want to play against that. Its like if they made a Commander that's intentionally designed to Mindslaver Lock you.

Maralen has never really seen a lot of play in the past because she's basically self-defeating since your opponent gets to tutor first and can simply find whatever piece of removal they want to kill Maralen. Cards like Shadow of Doubt, Leonin Arbiter, Aven Mindcensor, Stranglehold, and Ashiok, Dream Render ALREADY exist, but the difference is that none of them have been playable in a mono black deck with Maralen before.

So the real problem is that Opposition Agent should have been Blue/Black like Notion Thief, or IMO, ABSOLUTELY should have been a WHITE card. One of the few unique parts of White's color pie is hatebears. And Opposition Agent would have been a great piece of card advantage for white, similar to Alms Collector, which isn't nearly as good as it sounds since it doesn't trigger from multiple singular draws, but only if 2 or more are drawn at once from the same effect.

Opposition Agent otherwise has the same problem as Hullbreacher does. Its just going to die to removal immediately. You might get a bit of value from it, but once its out, no one is going to choose to tutor or draw extra cards until its gone. So you get some immediate value from it, and then its basically just another hatebear.

Hullbreacher is NOT Smothering Tithe. Smothering Tithe triggers on EVERY draw and it tricks you with the option of paying for it, even though few people ever want to, much like Rhystic Study. You still get to draw all the cards you want, someone else just gets a little extra benefit for it. It doesn't actually harm you unless you choose to pay for it. That's why its so good, it flies under the radar. Its why people will kill a Platinum Angel or Blazing Archon on sight, but don't really care about that Ghostly Prison even though they're both keeping you from getting attacked. One has an optional work-around, its just inconvenient enough to disuade people from doing it.

IMO, Opposition Agent should have been white, and it should have fit along the same lines as Smothering Tithe. Something like, "Flash, Whenever an opponent searches their library, you may also search your library for a card, unless that opponent pays 2. If you do, put it into your hand and shuffle." This way you're just taxing your opponents' tutors, or profiting off of them yourself.

People have said it before, but Rhystic Study should ABSOLUTELY have been a white card, and this would have been a cool way to do it, much like how Beast Within breaks green's color pie, so it was colorshifted to white in Modern Horizons as Generous Gift.

dingusdingo on Commander Legends card is going …

2 months ago

Can the posters in this thread please post your 100% off-topic posts elsewhere? I don't want actual discussion to get buried in your silly goose time. The thread is clearly marked "cedh", not "off-topic".

TriusMalarky I disagree with your evaluation of Opposition Agent. That card will see far more play than Jeweled Lotus and make a far bigger impact on games when it resolves.

  • It doesn't just block a tutor, it steals a tutor. Compare to other tutor hate that simply blocks a tutor. Opposition Agent effectively replaces itself, but with any card you want from their library. The card is itself effectively a tutor stapled to a hatebear. When the format is heavy with 1 card win conditions like Ad Nauseam and Intuition, stealing a tutor can be game ending.
  • With the most common tutor hate Aven Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter, some tutors can still get through even if they are less effective. Opposition Agent is a hard stop to all tutor effects, always.
  • A resolved Opposition Agent on the board will still warp gameplay harder than other tutor hate. With a Leonin Arbiter, players can still get their fetches and tutors through. With an Aven Mindcensor, I have seen some players still crack their fetches and pray they can find one in their top 4. Opposition Agent completely stops any tutors of any kind, and a fetch cracked just to shuffle away a bad topdeck will not just be a loss for the player who cracked, but a gain for the owner of Opposition Agent.
  • Pilots will now have to be more aware than ever of how a single point of failure can ruin their game plan. If someone is playing Food Chain.dec and has no back ups, a resolved Opposition Agent that steals the food chain has now completely stolen their chances of winning. This will be even more disgusting in BUG Food Chain decks, that are also able to run Extract and Praetor's Grasp, being able to yoink 2 or 3 different key cards to neuter entire decks.
  • Every single competitive deck runs tutor effects. I don't mean this figuratively either. Every single competitive deck runs tutors, hard stop. This card is always live. It singlehandedly hates out entire decks, Godo, Sidisi, Yisan, Vannifar, anything with a tutor in the command zone. Also consider how many decks will run lower removal count because their tutors double as removal with layering. Now, those decks running 3 or 4 catch-all pieces of removal don't have any access to it. Also consider how a dead tutor in your hand is wasted opportunity cost. Having a Demonic Tutor in hand while an Opposition Agent is on the board means you have a dead card that does absolutely nothing while the Agent is on the field. Even if it gets removed, delaying your tutor by even a single turn can change your win into a loss.

Opposition Agent is absolutely bananas, and its ability to steal tutors will swing games.

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