Combos Browse all Suggest
Legality
| Format | Legality |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Oldschool 93/94 | Legal |
| Planar Constructed | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Library of Alexandria
Land
: Add .
: Draw a card. Activate this ability only if you have exactly seven cards in hand.
jethstriker on Assassin's Creed? Ugh, fine.
10 months ago
Timmy, I think you're referring to Arabian Nights. With cards like Bazaar of Baghdad, Library of Alexandria, and King Suleiman, it's really like they're referring to the real world Arab region. I think it's just around the 2000's they retrofitted the name of the plane to Rabiah because "they don't want real life references" to the game.
000CBomb000 on Draw a Few Format?
10 months ago
I play Old School and in casual games we have a house rule that we draw two each turn, with no discarding required in the first turn only. It has several advantages:
- dramatically reduces the likelihood of mana flood/screw.
- it speeds up games, since you generally play a land and cast at least one spell per turn. Otherwise, with typical draw one, players tend to empty their hands quickly and the game slows down dramatically.
- it decreases the effectiveness of control decks like The Deck, which aren't fun to play against anyway. It increases the effectiveness of Aggro styles, which are more fun. Creatures are really janky in Old School and they need as much help as they can get.
- it reduces the advantage of Library of Alexandria, Braingeyser, and Jayemdae Tome, and reduces the disadvantage of Mind Twist, any of which can be nearly fatal in Old School matches.
There is even an Old School variant called "Gentleman's Rules" that bans Library and Mind Twist because they are so powerful in single-draw. In double draw, they are not a problem.
The only downsides:
- cards that punish card draw get much stronger. Chains of Mephistopheles and Underworld Dreams become very strong, almost problematic. If enacted in a tournament, it would definitely change the meta (maybe that's good!). We would likely have to restrict these.
- Sylvan Library becomes very strong, and may need to be restricted.
Some of those factors may be relevant to Commander. Definitely try it out!
sylvannos on
Hoax Storm v2
2 years ago
To start with, there's a few cards that have better Vintage equivalents. Overmaster and Spell Pierce should be the 3rd. and 4th. copies of Force of Will. Leftover space from cutting those can be Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, or Flusterstorm. You don't need Faithless Looting because we have Paradoxical Outcome, Sensei's Divining Top, Gush, Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, and Brainstorm to choose from. Merchant Scroll also belongs in here, because you can use it to grab Ancestral Recall at the very least. Usually you want it to make sure you have protection in hand by grabbing countermagic.
Library of Alexandria isn't good in this deck. And you're not the type that needs 8x sources, so Steam Vents can go, along with a few copies of Volcanic Island (1 or 2). Replace all of these with four copies of Scalding Tarn and basic lands. Or even just play 6x fetches. You need to be able to shuffle after using Brainstorm, Ponder,and Sensei's Divining Top.
From here, you have a solid U/R Storm shell. However, I wouldn't play straight "Modern U/R Storm, but Power 9" dot dec. 2 mana is a lot for Goblin Electromancer, there are easier ways of winning than Grapeshot, and so on. The question then becomes "Where to go from here?"
- Paradoxical Outcome is just the nuts. By bouncing moxen and cheap artifacts, it's a ritual (since you can replay everything for , untapping it all) and it's a draw spell. However, Paradoxical Outcome requires Mox Opals, Lotus Petal, Lion's Eye Diamond, etc. so you'll have to cut rituals (likely Seething Song). The upside is you get an extremely powerful engine that can often end the game with a single Paradoxical Outcome.
- Thassa's Oracle is the new hotness for Vintage combo cards. You can win the game by casting Brain Freeze on yourself, then casting Thassa's Oracle. It also opens up more combos using Demonic Consultation and Doomsday. Sometimes you've just drawn a bunch of cards and have ~3 cards left in your deck.
- Tinker is too good in Storm not to play it. You're either getting Memory Jar, Bolas's Citadel, Time Vault (Voltaic Key is already good in Storm when combined with Mana Vault and friends), or a random wincon like Sphinx of the Steel Wind boarded in for game 2. Bolas's Citadel will essentially flip the top half of your deck into play.
- You can also play draw 7s (Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Memory Jar, Diminishing Returns) in combination with Narset, Parter of Veils and Hullbreacher.
- Mana Drain is good, but you may find it too slow if you make any of the above changes. It definitely does more work in a more control-oriented Storm deck with Narset, Parter of Veils, Dack Fayden, Grim Tutor, etc.
- Lastly, there's the question of Underworld Breach, Yawgmoth's Will, Monastery Mentor, or some combination of these. Underworld Breach will mean you can stay in two colors. Playing black for Yawgmoth's Will allows you to play Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Doomsday, Tendrils of Agony, and hardcasting Bolas's Citadel. Monastery Mentor both scales up and goes sideways. A single token is enough to kill someone combined with Paradoxical Outcome or a draw 7. Monastery Mentor is like casting Tarmogoyf and Empty the Warrens for three mana and one card.
Hope this helps! Welcome to MtG's oldest and greatest format.
DemonDragonJ on Several New Cards
3 years ago
seshiro_of_the_orochi, Magus of the Library could be referring to either Sylvan Library or Library of Alexandria.
plakjekaas on Will WotC Eventually Print an …
3 years ago
Kazuhahaha none taken, but please be reminded that my answers should be placed into the context of the whole topic, not just the previous post. OP's original suggestion was about if WotC will ever print an artifact that relates to Tolarian Academy the way the new Circle of Dreams Druid relates to Gaea's Cradle . You're not going to convince me that the druid actually does a better job cradling than the cradle, only because it's a creature itself. In that light, responding to Grubbernaut asking why they would ever print a card similar enough to Tolarian Academy to draw the comparison, my answer was: they'll print a worse version that obviously nostalgically reminds of Tolarian Academy that won't break any format due to some costs or restrictions. You know, the way The Biblioplex is not quite Library of Alexandria .
Oloro_Magic on None
4 years ago
Well TypicalTimmy, I don't think I can come close to the honestly quite touching memories of your father that you share and how magic has come to occupy a place for the cultivation of memories, I do agree with your general sentiment behind making this post. I hope it sticks! This seems like a really wholesome way for the community to come together so thank you for that.
For me the card that holds the most prominent place in my heart is Sigardian Priest hands down. I remember making admittedly very bad limited decks with this card, as well as putting it in a deck when a bunch of friends were just starting magic. It became a bit of an inside joke in that friend group that Sigardian Priest was the best card ever printed, that its ability was always relevant. Of course this wasn't true but it provided hours of laughs simply because I put it in a deck to play with a group of friends that were looking to play fun casual magic, in many ways its the card that broke me a bit more out of my shell and made me commit to being a more active voice on whatever I put my mind to. In honor of the memories it has provided, and regardless of the fact all those people have since moved or stopped playing magic I have made a habit of routinely buying them out, it has been a while since I took a tally but we are somewhere close to 500 foil and non-foil copies at this point; a truly stupid monument to a truly stupid joke.
The other cards I have to single out are Deja Vu, Ad Nauseam, and Library of Alexandria. All three of these cards speak to me personally. I'm a classicist by training with research focused on the city of Alexandria, so the last one should be largely obvious, Ad Nauseam and library linked my interests so to speak so they will always hold a place that is special to me. For Deja Vu I've always loved that quote, as in many ways it is what I research but also horribly far off the mark as history also seeks to identify anomalies and from there, in the work I do, situate those anomalies within a new pattern. So yes its repetition, but at the same time that is mischaracterizing a vital part of the process. The seemingly contradictory nature then never fails to get me thinking about this challenge the discipline as a whole faces, and thus provides a great tool for self-reflection.
One more I would be remiss to not mention is Gravity Negator, I simply find the art on this card incredible, nothing more, I can't help but admire it.
Caerwyn on The Companion Mechanic was a …
4 years ago
I do not think Companion is broken on its face, and I think some of the Companions prove that adequately. However, it is a very dangerous mechanic, and one Wizards should have been more careful with.
To start, Companion basically tutors an extra card to your opening hand. Extra cards in your opening hand? Library of Alexandria is banned in Legacy, Commander, and restricted in Vintage for that reason, giving Wizards cause to be weary. Tutoring a card you have built around to your hand? Tutors are prominent members of the Legacy banlist and Vintage restricted list (and frequently banned in EDH homerules).
So, we know that these types of effect can be problematic and need to be carefully balanced. It was during the balance stage, not the conceptualization stage, where Wizards made their mistake.
Several of the companions do succeed in balance. They combine significant restrictions with abilities that are useful, but also limited in scope. Copying spells? That's a good ability--but having your deck be singleton is a huge downside. A small tribal bonus to a limited number of tribes? Easy to insert into that deck, but a tribal anthem is not too game-breaking. Had all the companions followed the "stringent restriction-high cost" or "medium restriction-low value" pattern of some of the more mediocre ones, I think the mechanic could have been fine....
But they didn't follow that pattern. Too many of the companions were low-restriction-high-value. Activated abilities are easy to come by; lots of the best cards in the game cost 2 or less; 20 more cards is mitigated by the redundancy created by the thousands of cards printed. Combine those low-restrictions with high combo value--where having a combo piece always in your hand is disproportionately strong--and you have a recipe for disaster.
Wizards really should have know better than to put low-restrictions on high-value cards, but, as Oko and others have shown, they don't always do a good job at valuing their own cards' potential.
I know they said they were open to changing how the companion mechanic works, and might do so if the mechanic retains a high degree of competitive dominance--it will be interesting to see if they do so, and what form that restriction takes.
Sanguinolency on Card creation challenge
5 years ago
Time Run
Sorcery
Tag someone and run away. If they catch you, they take an extra turn after this one. If they don't catch you after 60 seconds, you take an extra turn after this one.
Keep it going!
So we have Timetwister, Time Walk and Black Lotus/Blacker Lotus. Make the rest of the power 9 + honorable mention Library of Alexandria and Oko, Thief of Crowns.
