Lifecrafter's Bestiary

Artifact

At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.

Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may pay . If you do, draw a card.

Discussion (51)

ValiWolf on Pain-Harm-onicon Wulfar Value

2 days ago

Hey jamesmac42, thanks for the suggestions! I actually already have Nature's Lore and I've thought about Three Visits , and Three Visits is a good run over Rampant Growth for sure but, throughout my playtesting the ramp has actually gone quite well, but I'm still playtesting and curating the deck. I have looked at Lifecrafter's Bestiary but decided that generally my spells cost enough as is without big creatures like Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient , Grand Warlord Radha and Savage Ventmaw , but it is still worth considering! personally, given how giving everything Trample and Deathtouch works, I think I more highly value Bow of Nylea potentially giving all of the big creatures huge pumps, trample and deathtouch so that more damage tramples over. Shamanic Revelation is a card I had in the deck at one point, but it feels like a card that just gets you more ahead, instead of helping you come back from a board wipe or something, I think I would personally consider Harmonize instead of Shamanic Revelation for more consistent card draw and a slightly cheaper cost. Radha Heir to Keld is a card I have been moving back and forth on constantly and it's actually a card I put in the Budget list for this deck, maybe I'll keep it around. I'd love to look over your deck list and see if there's any kind of inspiration I could take! I think this could be my favorite deck if I can get it in paper

jamesmac42 on Pain-Harm-onicon Wulfar Value

3 days ago

ValiWolf Hey, that’s funny, we almost built the same deck!

If anything, I would recommend more ramp. You’re gonna want it, trust me. Radha, Heir to Keld is a great dork for this deck, with a helpful attack trigger to boot. Three Wishes and Nature's Lore can grab Cinder Glade and Stomping Ground .

Purely my preference, but given the choice, I would slot Lifecrafter's Bestiary over Bow of Nylea . I also kept the Shamanic Revelation from the pre-con – that’s one card that’s never disappointed me.

I’d encourage you to play around and see what works!

wyzeman on Walk in the Vastwood

1 month ago

out: Sensei's Divining Top , Lifecrafter's Bestiary , Shamanic Revelation , Genesis Hydra , Vigor

in: Abundant Harvest , Sylvan Anthem , Harmonize , Wall of Roots , Yedora, Grave Gardener

d_iros on Crouching Kadena, Hidden Phage [Primer]

1 month ago

Soulus101 - My experience with looking over many Kadena decks on this site is that most do not have ways to definitively win the game consistently. That is what I'm trying to bring to the table, a Kadena deck that uses her and morphs to find the cards that do the actual winning, in my own janky yet carefully considered way.

I already have three such cards, Guardian Project , Beast Whisperer (already in the deck, but thank you), and Teferi's Ageless Insight . I don't think any of the flexible black tutors can be cut with how convoluted most of the few win conditions of this deck are. I find the deck typically wins turn 8-11 (occasionally earlier, occasionally later) if left uninterrupted and the tutor package has been a large part of that consistency. Lastly, one of my favorite uses of tutors in this deck is not to find the win piece, but the piece that is going to take the draw engine to the next level. That being said, there are definitely improvements that can be made to the consistency of getting a good draw engine going and another More Cards Per Morph card should always be considered.

I worry that the 6 CMC cost of Soul of the Harvest is too high and the card won't make an impact until too late. At 6+ turns you want to be focused on deploying combo pieces and leaving the rest of your mana open for morphs. Lifecrafter's Bestiary seems like a good option, I've spent a long time considering it, but it is definitely a step down from a card like Beast Whisperer which is already in the deck and the weakest of my More Cards Per Morph cards. I feel like both need a shot being played with to really know, but also there's nothing I'm quick to cut from this list at the moment to make room for them.

Of all the tutors I might cut it may be Shared Summons . I think it has good application in this deck but the 5 CMC cost is pretty painful. I still need more time playing with it though.

Soulus101 on Crouching Kadena, Hidden Phage [Primer]

1 month ago

While I really enjoyed playing Kadena, I found that the games I played with her were very long, mainly because my turns were so slow and I had so many actions and reactions. I couldn't put my finger on it, it's not like it's the only durdle-y deck I've played, but it was so slow.

That said, cards that draw on creature entry or cast are the main thing that seems to be missing from this, Soul of the Harvest or Beast Whisperer or even Lifecrafter's Bestiary could really improve your draws. I'm not sure your tutors supercede this.

Absolumx on Muldrotha Control

3 months ago

Hello , i see that you are missing a lot of protection for Muldrotha and have a lot of ramp spell that will not be useful in your graveyard later on. Here some suggestions for you if you want to explore other avenue.

Protection: Command Beacon - It will ensure you can always cast muldrotha for cheap. Bojuka Bog - very important to interact with your opponent graveyards, if not needed cycle it and use it later if needed.

Lightning Greaves For me its a no brainer especially how much muldrotha cost to cast we need to help him..or her staying on the board.

Spore Frog is just amazing if you are in a playgroup that go to combat a lot your just dont care sac spore frog everytime and recast it on your next turn for a huge shield... if you playgroup dont use combat a lot leave it out.

Elephant Grass Is also very good to keep you safe while you are building up your board. Dont want to pay the cumulative upkeep, sac it and replay it again :)

Glen Elendra Archmage is also going to disturbed your opponent plans when its on the board and I pair her with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed so she always come back without me having to recast her, and Mikaeus is just awesome in this deck.

Im Testing and trying Lilting Refrain for counter spell which seemed a good deterrent like Glen Elendra and it can be reutilized.

Ramp You are using a lot of sorceries for this category, I was doing the same before and felt that these card had no value on the long run.

I now use a different approach on ramp. I use milling and I play cards like Ramunap Excavator , Dryad of the Ilysian Grove , Springbloom Druid (should replace cultivate), my favorite is World Shaper (instead of your splendid reclamation) and sac it for massive boost, same for The Mending of Dominaria it just feed your grave and have a massive outcome + they can be replayed later by your cmdr.

I would play 1 or 2 drop mana dorks over ramping sorceries for sure. The only sorcery I really suggest is Life from the Loam so good to feed your graveyard or get your land back if needed.

Self mill: Jace, Memory Adept will do better than Beleren , pair this with Syr Konrad, the Grim and other mill option ... let me know in your reply if you would like this avenue a have a few good cards that can help.

Tutor: You also want to replace your Beseech the Queen for Gravebreaker Lamia or Sidisi, Undead Vizier same thing it does the same and can be replayed over and over.

Card Draw: I would replace Lifecrafter's Bestiary for Secrets of the Dead which will make you draw like crazy when you cast back stuff from your grave.

Ohter: Fleshbag Marauder is a good effect, but you can have more versatile and mana efficient creatures which are also cheap: Demon's Disciple and Plaguecrafter both are an auto include when repeated over and over they are very nasty.

Hostage Taker is very very fun .

Steal Enchantment is a very good 2 mana value card which will make you live the dream of having a Smothering Tithe , Rhystic Study or any other broken enchantments.

I can go on an on on card that will benefit your deck , what I would say check to replace your instant and sorceries with permanents that will benefit you during the entire game.

Let me know what you think and what you will change I can then help you tweaking a few more things.

goodair on Ruric Thar

3 months ago

ramp:
Font of Fertility , Wayfarer's Bauble , Beanstalk Giant , Sakura-Tribe Elder Khalni Heart Expedition you can store the charges on it until you want to trigger landfall
draw:
Seer's Sundial , Colossal Majesty , Aid from the Cowl (fetchlands make this happen), Beast Whisperer , Guardian Project ,

land: Kessig Wolf Run , Castle Garenbrig , Mosswort Bridge , Gruul Turf , Guildless Commons . The 2 bounce lands can target themselves, so you can reuse next turn if you don,t have lands in hand lategame. With Azusa, you can bounce it 3x for 3 landfall triggers.

extra: Hammer of Purphoros Fires of Yavimaya Radha, Heart of Keld , Kenrith's Transformation , Song of the Dryads , Vivien, Champion of the Wilds , Lignify , Vivien, Monsters' Advocate , Cindervines , Bonecrusher Giant

maybe: Garruk's Uprising , Gruul Ragebeast , Lifecrafter's Bestiary , Yeva, Nature's Herald

TheVectornaut on my attemp at a deck..

4 months ago

It can often be bad manners to put silver bullet cards in the mainboard. Usually, you'd put such cards in the side and swap them in for games 2 and 3. I know a lot of casual playgroups don't play best 2 out of 3 though, so if this player is using that deck a lot and consistently winning off of a single card, they can't really be surprised if you include some way to answer it in the 60. That said, Duress and Languish effects are the kinds of answers that are extremely common in black anyway. I personally wouldn't bat an eye at seeing them here. Underworld Dreams and Fate Unraveler , definitely not so much.

What is the card in question, by the way? That will obviously affect what's an appropriate response. When I played modern elves, it was pretty rare to bother with drawing the deck when you could just dump it with Collected Company and Genesis Wave . But, from playing other green decks over the years, cards like Lifecrafter's Bestiary , The Great Henge , Vanquisher's Banner , Beast Whisperer , Soul of the Harvest , Primordial Sage , Zendikar Resurgent , Glimpse of Nature , and Regal Force are what come to mind. For the creatures, they would be easy enough to deal with given enough Murder s. For the artifacts, things are rough. Black really hates destroying artifacts, so the very weak Phyrexian Tribute was the best option I could find. However, there is always the nuclear option of running Extirpate or Surgical Extraction with discard to essentially lock a single card out of the game. These are very much sideboard cards though, so running them main has a good chance of drawing a negative reaction.