Leonin Arbiter

Creature — Cat Cleric

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Discussion (51)

dingusdingo on Haïti chérie

6 days ago

I'm assuming this is a budgetless list, so my first question is why no Mox Opal ? Oversight or intentional?

Next, how do you handle resolved creatures? You have three spells capable of removing a critter off the board, in Chain of Vapor Cyclonic Rift and Toxic Deluge , but that's about it from what I can see. Why don't you run Ensnaring Bridge Humility Damnation or similar? I understand you want to be proactive with counterspells but there's no way you can lock the other 3 players with 1 for 1 trades while you're also building your board. Also consider that bouncing THEN countering a spell is 2-for-1'ing yourself when you could just Swords to Plowshares it. Literally every deck features a creature as the commander so its not like you won't have targets except the unbelievably rare pod of 4 PW commanders.

Are you aware in that you have a wincon with Angel's Grace + Ad Nauseam + Silence + Brainstorm + Windfall + Yawgmoth's Will ? I don't see the line listed despite being a built in backup if both labman + Jace are exiled. I see Yawgill + Grace listed but it doesn't look like you realize you can force 99+ draws to win.

Have you considered running tutor hate in tandem with Scheming Symmetry ? Aven Mindcensor or Leonin Arbiter break parity and are worth running even without Symmetry. I understand this is meant to be a bear-lite build but with how many wheels (free draws for opponents) you're running, turning off tutors may save your bacon. Also works well with Wishclaw which you seem to enjoy (its a Grim Tutor for first activation but being reusable for cheap unconditional tutor is fantastic so I have mixed feelings)

Have you considered miracle cards for Aminatous +1? Having the ability to always get them for the miracle cost is pretty rad. Banishing Stroke Devastation Tide Temporal Mastery Terminus . The timewalk one should be worth a consideration for sure. Miracle cards also make great surprise plays with EOT Vampiric Tutor or Mystical Tutor

Have you played against a discard stax deck like Nath or a mana denial stax deck yet? Your low amount of removal is leading me to believe that a resolved Trinisphere or Oppression makes this deck cry big sad tears.

Why would I choose Aminatou as the commander over Zur for a similar build? Zur can consistently grab Waste Not to kickstart wheel lines or value grinders like Necropotence Rhystic Study . I like the Aminatou interaction with Wishclaw but I don't think that single interaction in your 99 can justify the choice when Zur is going to give you 100% consistency. I normally see Aminatou decks run stax pieces that it can break parity on by blinking your own permanents ( Static Orb shutting the game down but you blink a tapped Mana Vault to get far ahead, blinking a 1 counter Tangle Wire to reset it, untapping your Ancient Tomb while Winter Orb is out, etc.etc.). You could certainly run strong hate cards like Winter Orb without turning off your combo lines. Cost enhancers like Trinisphere or Sphere of Resistance might prove unwise though.

Extremely interesting build, curious to see where it goes. Cheers

dingusdingo on Tana / Tymna, Draft Two

1 week ago

Alright, the single most glaring issue here is that you're running Razaketh but you don't have a Razaketh package to win. Normally in competitive decks, Razaketh is used to instantly assemble a combo to win after coming into play, off of the neat tools Life and Lion's Eye Diamond . While its a fantastic combo, LED is some serious $$$, and Razaketh is going to enter and potato for you here. I'd cut it

Second, you're suffering from trying to run too many things. There's simply no reason to have Ghave + Raza + Hulk + saffi/titan + kiki combo. Blood Pod is primarily a stax deck, so its much better to hit your stride on controlling the table than try to race the other (faster) combo decks. It will also free up a lot of slots. You should slim it down to just kiki combo, and up stax pieces. Look at Root Maze and other cards that come down on turn 1/2 and will slow extremely fast decks. Manglehorn is 3 CMC but its stax stapled to removal so its extremely worth considering. You also need to up your hatebear count, because currently you aren't really slowing the combo decks like you need to, just disrupting their mana. Look at Leonin Arbiter Eidolon of Rhetoric Spirit of the Labyrinth Glowrider and ofc both Thalias.

Third, anything over 3 CMC you should cast a real critical eye towards. You're trying to hit the board fast and strangle other players out before they get a strong board presence. Having expensive CMC cards is a double whammy, you aren't playing them early, and if it was different card you COULD be playing that card instead. I'm really looking at Doubling Season Ghoulcaller Ghisa Chainer, Nightmare Adept

Next, cut out utility dorks you don't need. Goodbye Soul Warden Magus of the Wheel Loyal Retainers . If you want life run Serra Ascendant instead. You shouldn't be trying to refill your opponents hands while you're staxing them out with Magus (plus its costing you 5 mana you COULD be doing something else). Loyal Retainers is slow and a meme outside combos, run Life in its place if you are looking for more resurrection effects.

Fourth, add more removal. If you add a creature based piece of removal like Caustic Caterpillar or Qasali Pridemage , all your creature tutors CAN double as removal.

TL;DR pull out expensive beater shiz and add more stax! This is a stax deck!

Nemesis on Flying Cats

2 weeks ago

If you're looking to make this decent in Modern you'll have to bring the cmc down a little bit. unfortunately, Raksha Golden Cub is too slow for modern, seeing as you won't be able to get its effect before turn 8 at the earliest. Here are my recommendations -

Cut:

Raksha Golden Cub - too expensive

Spirit of the Hearth - could be a sideboard card, still probably too expensive

Bond of Discipline - other cheaper options

Godsend - not useful without raksha

Ancestral Blade - not useful without raksha

Pride Guardian - Defender really goes against your plan here, and I feel like the only reason it's in the deck is because of the life gain

Cards to add:

Leonin Vanguard - gains life every turn for your pridemate, good if you have multiple creatures

Path to Exile - a modern removal staple

Brimaz is already in your maybe board, he's a monster

Sacred Cat - this coooould be an option, but it's pretty weak.

Leonin Arbiter - pairs nicely with path, slows many decks down.

Metallic Mimic - does this count or is this cheating?

Adaptive Automaton - same as above

Icbrgr on Cats Company

1 month ago

I think Leonin Arbiter is worth a SB slot to shut down fetch land users if your not sold on tutoring your own cats... otherwise seems legit +1

hungry000 on Oh Drat, It’s Cat Attack! (2.0)

2 months ago

For starters, I would drop all the noncreature spells you're currently playing. That gives you 8 cards to work with; 4 of those are Path to Exile (or if you still want to keep it kinda budget On Thin Ice ) and for the other 4 I'd play Metallic Mimic . When you have access to potentially 16 one-drops (all really good one-drops, at that) Mimic is pretty insane.

After that, I'd cut down 2 Regal Caracal and a land (or -3 Caracal and -2 lands) and finish the playsets of Loam Lion , Savannah Lions , and Pride Sovereign . Caracal is a super strong card, but with a really good lord like King of the Pride and equally good aggro 1-2 drops, you don't actually need it.

Another thing you could do if you cut all the Caracals is play a set of Aether Vial . You would be able to get away with 21 lands that way since the top end of your curve would be 3 cmc and you'd have Vial. To make it simple, the changes would be this: -3 Caracal , -3 Forest/Plains, +1 Loam Lion , +1 Pride Sovereign , +4 Aether Vial . Given the power of Aether Vial, this would be the most competitive way to make this deck in my humble opinion.

For late game card advantage, 4 Horizon Canopy will do the trick, especially after cutting Caracals and even more so with Vial. As for the rest of the mana base, it's relatively simple to upgrade: 4 Windswept Heath , 2-3 Temple Garden , some fast lands and maybe a check land, and voila!

A final tip: if you have the gall, you can cut a set of 1-drops to fit in a set of Leonin Arbiter . Not only is it on theme, but it is great against more competitive decks with fetches and works with Path to Exile and Ghost Quarter . Arbiter is especially good at instant speed with Aether Vial since you can flash it in in response to a fetch, so there's some more incentive to turn this into a Vial deck. Remember not to play fetches yourself, though.

Hope this helps!

plusARGON on Taxing Ponza

2 months ago

This looks like a fun deck! Leonin Arbiter doesn't play well with your fetches, though. You have a couple of choices here. You can leave them in, and switch to Inspiring Vantage and go up on Sunbaked Canyon ; or take them out and use something like Crucible of Worlds .

Also, since you're Red and White you might consider Ajani Vengeant .

ALSO, Pillage should probably be in this deck, at least the

[email protected]_only on The Church of Sacrifice

2 months ago

list of possilbe clerics to consider:

Heliod, God of the Sun - okay, not a cleric, but makes cleric tokens

Alms Collector - good card draw engine in EDH - prevents players from drawing their deck in one go also

Auriok Champion - linear upgrade from Soul Warden - resists removal

Auriok Replica - good sac for anti-commander damage, fits cleric type, colorless to cast. not super amazing, but worth mentioning

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - not all that useful until you gain some life, then amazing removal. and 2/3 deathtouch for 2 isn't bad either

Battlefield Medic - damage prevention based on clerics. nothing to special, but tribal themed, so I mention it here.

Beloved Chaplain - evasion that's hard to top - can't be blocked by creatures, can't be removed by creatures.

Blind Zealot - sacs to destroy target creature when it hits a player, good for general

Cabal Archon - sac outlet? check. Cleric tribal? check. sadistic grin? double check.

Cabal Executioner - on par with blind zealot - lacks the evasion, but doesn't sac to activate. mixed bag, but not horrible

Children of Korlis - sacs to revert life total to start of turn? yes please

Custodi Lich - grants Monarch, and forces creature sac on play and when you regain it. seems good.

Custodi Soulcaller - requires a few players to be super amazing, but still worthwhile even if all you get back is Children of Korlis

Daru Spiritualist - not quite pro- red, but helps agaisnt spot removal for entire tribe. bonus if paired with Shaman en-Kor

Devout Chaplain - most clerics are humans, exile is good. enough said.

Eight-and-a-Half-Tails - good protection for your side of the field.

Entomber Exarch - cleric that can reanimate or force pitch from opponents. not gamebreaker, but solid card with options

Frontline Medic - clerics are indistructable as long as 3 swing? seems good

Giver of Runes - really should be vodka-aunt of runes, but w/e, still good

High Priest of Penance - great to chump with, better with aethreos, best when indistructable

Kor Sanctifiers - decent artifact / enchantment removal on a cleric body, not much else to say.

Leonin Arbiter - the staple of death & taxes and hate bears is, in fact, a cleric. seems useful.

Leonin Relic-Warder - fiend hunter for artifacts & enchantments, not much else to say.

Mikaeus, the Lunarch - cleric that slowly buffs your side

Order of Whiteclay - recusion cleric. not as useful once it gets vigilence, so fair warning.

Pious Evangel  ^Flip - sac outlet that transforms into a mini- blood artist, is cleric.

Pontiff of Blight - mass extort is disgusting. seven toughness is hard to remove.

Ravos, Soultender - recursion + steroids = win

Remorseful Cleric - mass graveyard remval + evasion is good

Shaman en-Kor - this guy is bonkers, and with any form of damage prevention makes your side nigh unkillable

Sin Collector - exiles instants & sorceries, solid card. never returns them either. probably is on a wanted list in some libraries for back charges

True Believer - if you don't want people to target you, ivory mask with legs is a cleric too

Tymna the Weaver - less useful in duels, but solid for mass card draw otherwise

Vile Deacon - cleric tribal lord for black, comparible to doubtless one

Weathered Wayfarer - land tax on legs. still a cleric

Whipgrass Entangler - ghostly prison based on clerics for mana, but single target per use

Whisper, Blood Liturgist - creature recusion that nukes for 6 with general out, or mass reanimation if opponen't don't take it.

Profane Prayers - not an X spell, but cleric tribal nuke seems kinda on-theme.

SideBae on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim EDH (Help Needed)

2 months ago

First of all, thank you for including the budget in your deck description. It helps me to know what kinds of cards to suggest.

Swords to Plowshares is one of the few one-for-ones I think should be regularly run in EDH -- you should include it in this list. It is easily better than Path to Exile , as the ramp is significant in a format like EDH, where people are always trying to do big things. Ashes to Ashes is another good piece of removal, as it kills two things with one card; Kaya's Guile is similar. Despark is worth considering, if only because of its versatility.

Entomb is 7-odd dollars these days, and if you pair it with Animate Dead , Unburial Rites , Reanimate or Dance of the Dead you can cheat out a fatty like your Harvester of Souls or Sheoldred, Whispering One nice and early. Buried Alive is similar to Entomb . Consider an Ashen Rider or Grave Titan as other reanimation targets.

Caves of Koilos is a good enters-untapped land to consider, as is Isolated Chapel . Shambling Vent , Command Tower and possibly Godless Shrine or Silent Clearing are also worth considering. Speaking of lands, I think you're running too many. Thirty-three lands is generally about where you want to be -- thirty-eight is generally only appropriate in landfall-style, Azusa, Lost but Seeking -type decks. Including more mana-rocks like Mind Stone , Coldsteel Heart , the soon-to-come-out Arcane Signet , Fellwar Stone or Prismatic Lens is also worth considering.

Blind Obedience is a good way to slow down your opponents while providing a way to recoup life you pay to your Necropotence or similar. Blood Artist and Cruel Celebrant are also good cards in the vein of draining opponents.

Card advantage is a big deal in EDH. Phyrexian Arena is worth considering, even if it is a big expensive these days; Twilight Prophet is similar. Night's Whisper and Ambition's Cost are good one-shot draw-spells.

Dawn of Hope is worth considering, especially if you also choose to add Mentor of the Meek . Having tokens to sac with Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim 's abilities (especially the second one) is good. Which brings me to recursive creatures: Having creatures who return themselves to the board will make Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim that much stronger. Nether Traitor , Reassembling Skeleton and Bloodsoaked Champion are worth considering.

Mother of Runes is a good way to protect your creatures from spot-removal. Similarly, hatebears like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben , Vryn Wingmare , Glowrider , Aven Mindcensor or Leonin Arbiter . Smallpox is a card I really love in EDH, and its daddy Pox is worth a nod of consideration as well -- I do think Smallpox is the better of the two though.

If you choose to run Snow-Covered Plains and Snow-Covered Swamp s instead of regular basics, you can run Dead of Winter as a pretty powerful boardwipe that gets around Gaddock Teeg . Planar Cleansing is also worth consideration.

Fiend Hunter is an interesting card I thought of when I looked at this deck. Sac-ing him with the exile trigger on the stack makes the 'return to battlefield' resolve first, resulting in a permanent exile effect. This may be too marginal a synergy to include, but I figured it'd be worth at least mentioning.

Diabolic Edict and Chainer's Edict are both better than Blighted Fen .

Right. That's all from me, at least as far as I can think right now. Good luck with deck building!