Light Up the Stage

Sorcery

Spectacle (You may cast this spell for its spectacle cost rather than its mana cost if an opponent lost life this turn.)

Exile the top two cards of your library. Until the end of your next turn, you may play those cards.

Discussion (51)

jakeyuki12 on Aurelia, the Warleader Deck

2 days ago

Hiya! Long time player of Aurelia, the Warleader here. Hopefully I can give some solid advice.

You mentioned in your description that you tend to find yourself wiped out after an aggressive start. I'm guessing by this you mean that you tend to burn out and not have the reach to close out a game. I think your deck already has a pretty good amount of ramp- I counted 11 ways to ramp with your deck. I also noticed your deck has a lot of interaction and some pretty solid creatures, as well as a pretty high number of ways to protect them.

So, here is my advice to deal with the problem of reach (burning out, getting wiped out). I counted a total of 3 ways in your deck to generate consistent card advantage. The first way to deal with the problem of reach is to make room for more ways to generate card advantage. Contrary to popular belief, there are now, thanks to the generosity of Wizards of the Coast towards the red color in recent years, a good amount of cards that can help generate card advantage in Boros colors. They fall into different categories, you can figure out which fit your deck best. There is impulsive draw effects like Light Up the Stage, Outpost Siege, Commune with Lava, Prophetic Flamespeaker, etc. There are wheel effects similar to the Magus of the Wheel you already run like Wheel of Fortune (the expensive one), Wheel of Fate, and Reforge the Soul. There are some more equipment options if you want to lean in that direction like Sword of Fire and Ice (another pricy one), Mask of Memory, Rogue's Gloves, Infiltration Lens, etc. There are also some artifacts that have been printed in recent years that can work with most decks. You already have Tome of Legends, Endless Atlas would be another one in that category.

Once you fill out your deck with more ways to generate advantage, you'll have more access to cards and thus will be able to recover from a board wipe or removal more easily. It'll also help guarantee you'll hit your land drops and find your ramp pieces.

The other way to deal with reach is actually a playstyle choice. When playing my attack-heavy Boros deck, if I don't have a way to protect my board, I always make sure to play a little more conservatively. In other words, don't play out the rest of your hand, have a backup in hand, don't commit so much that a board wipe completely blows you out, etc. Having good card draw helps with this because it means that I can keep building my board while still having cards in hand in case stuff hits the fan.

Hope this helped! Good luck and I hope you enjoy playing Boros in EDH!

antacidbrn on Using Cantrips...how many for non-control ...

5 days ago

As a somewhat new Magic player, I have learned the value of card advantage the hard way, in the trenches of FNM, losing over and over again. But I still have a hard time evaluating cantrips in non-control decks.

In a Gruul Zoo build I am running for Modern, I use 4x copies of Once Upon a Time, which I love because it allows me to mulligan less and match up Burning-Tree Emissary or Hidden Herbalists with Myr Superion. Also, it feels good to cast it "for free", both thinning the deck and fixing mana.

My question is, with a low curve 18 land deck, how many more cantrips do I need? I am evaluating Light Up the Stage, but are there other and better options?

Also, what are the guidelines for use of card advantage spells in a non-control deck?

Suns_Champion on Brothers Yamazaki

6 days ago

Creative? Check

Unique? Check

Mono Red? Check

I love it. Here's some ideas.

Draw: Tome of Legends will be great in here. Maybe add Manifold Key for double untap/unblockable synergy. Endless Atlas, Ignite the Future, Humble Defector(use Homeward Path with it), Light Up the Stage are all cheap draw that I love in red. Prophetic Flamespeaker, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion, Knollspine Dragon, Tectonic Giant and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser all provide card advantage and/or push the aggro theme.

Ramp: Let's think about this for a minute. I think instead of turn 3 brother #1, turn 4 brother #2, we should try to get both brothers out turn 4 (with 4 land drops). That way we don't waste their haste or leave one brother out alone to get removed/wiped. For that, focus on cards that will get both broths out turn 4: Sol Ring, Generator Servant, Dockside Extortionist, Worn Powerstone, Coalition Relic, Seething Song, Ruby Medallion, Myriad Landscape + any 2cmc mana rock, Cloud Key, Hazoret's Monument, and Herald's Horn all allow you to get both Brother's swinging turn 4.

Helm of the host is a good idea. One combat and they're all 6/5s. Trample will be important then, so yeah Archetype of Aggression seems great. Blackblade Reforged will be consistently good.

As suggested, Godo, Bandit Warlord will be a powerhouse and wincon. Torbran, Thane of Red Fell will be good if you're going wide.

Themes to consider:

• Anthems
• Historic matters cards
• Legendary Matters cards
• Equipment
• Aggro/go wide

This is a cool idea, I will be back later! Get a decklist up TypicalTimmy, I already want to upvote it!

jakeyuki12 on War Master Aurelia's Angels/Soldiers

1 week ago

Hiya!

A few recommendations from a long time Aurelia, the Warleader player.

First off, I recommend bumping up the land count to 37-38. 34 lands isn't enough in EDH to reliably make land drops every turn, so adding more lands would help increase the consistency of the deck. Think of it this way- there's nothing worse than having cards in your hand you can't cast because you didn't draw enough lands to have the mana to cast them.

Next, add in more ways to generate card advantage. Looking over the deck, I saw 5 sources of card advantage (aka ways to get access to more cards to play, typically by drawing but can also be impulsive draw) with 4 ways to tutor for them. There are many wheel effects in red that are not the price of Wheel of Fortune. These are Wheel of Fate, Reforge the Soul, and Magus of the Wheel. Red also has access to some great impulsive draw spells. Outpost Siege is reliable, turn by turn one. Light Up the Stage is another good one that is easy to cast for its spectacle cost. Other notable ones are the c2019 new Ignite the Future, Commune with Lava, and Prophetic Flamespeaker. There are a few more equipment that draw cards like Rogue's Gloves and Sword of Fire and Ice. Finally, there are some great artifacts that have been printed in recent years that can get a consistent flow of cards. These include Tome of Legends and Endless Atlas.

Next is a few more ways to ramp. I counted 8 pieces, with once again 4 ways to tutor. Some simple mana rocks would do the job. Solemn Simulacrum, Burnished Hart, Knight of the White Orchid, and Kor Cartographer could also do the job. I do also recommend investing the money in buying a copy of Smothering Tithe. The card is very worth running in the deck. You already play lands that make every player draw, if you add in wheels for card draw it can be abused even more. Even without those though, it is by far the best EDH card in white and is more than worth the investment.

Finally, as you play the deck, I recommend you slowly take the time to think about the direction you want to really take it in. Right now it doesn't seem to have a huge focus to it, it's doing some equipment stuff, some big attack stuff, some artifact stuff, some token stuff, etc. Find a focus to the deck. Once you do, then you can start to make better decisions on how to make it better.

Let me know how the deck has been running in paper though! Good luck with learning to play Boros and I hope you learn to enjoy it!

DragonzBane on Boros Knights Standard on a Budget

1 week ago

I would suggest Light Up the Stage over Thrill of Possibility because it's cheaper and is card draw instead of just filtering.

Profet93 on Norin, Prince of Chaos

1 week ago

+1 You need card draw badly. If you like these suggestions, I can suggest other non-draw ideas as well. Problem is if you don't draw into a wheel, a continuous draw source (or if gets destroyed), then you're out of luck. You have a pretty good low curve. But with no real way to maintain gas, you will get blown out quickly. That, coupled with the pandemonium, mass hysteria and 2x damage doublers, you can find yourself on the worse end of that exchange fairly quickly, just against a big green deck with no inherent synergy other than beat face.

Arch of Orazca - Not bad at all, worth considering

Commune with Lava - Not bad at all, worth considering

Endless Atlas - Very good

Hedron Archive - Not the best but worth considering

Ignite the Future - Very helpful

Light Up the Stage - Helpful

Tome of Legends - Best draw source you will ever have

Feel free to check out my [Deck] for some ideas (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/norin-naughty-time/)

jakeyuki12 on Boros Aurelia

1 week ago

@DespairFaction Hey PJ! Thanks for the feedback.

All the hatebears have been performing really well so far. Just having an early aggressive and evasive creature that can hold equipment and get the train going, the fact that it slows down opponents makes them great.

Captain Lannery Storm has always been a great card in my deck. Turn 3 when she comes out I can always seem to find a free attack that helps me ramp early on. Swiftblade Vindicator has been excellent as it holds equipment incredibly well. I don't think the low toughness has ever been a problem for me, so once again an early, aggressive creature is just what this deck wants. As for Wayfarer's Bauble (Commander's Quarter's echoes are heard in the distance) I've always liked how it can get a land. Drawing it late game is just like drawing a copy of Rampant Growth late game, something that never stops us from running it.

Winds of Abandon has actually incredibly overperformed in this deck. The floor of the card is a bad Path to Exile (which is still great) while the ceiling is a one-sided boardwipe that can only be protected against by a counterspell or Teferi's Protection. It's the white version of Cyclonic Rift. Not nearly as powerful, but I'll take one-sided exile board wipes any day. With that in mind, I really like all the pieces of removal I've got in this deck, what I really was talking about is that I want just one or two more slots I feel to get just a tad bit more instant speed interaction in the deck.

The draw power of the deck works really well. Outpost Siege has always been ol' reliable for me. The way I play this deck, a steady flow of a bit of impulsive draw every turn is exactly what I want. Commune with Lava,Prophetic Flamespeaker, and Light Up the Stage could probably get me more impulsive draw, but I don't like overextending in this deck, and I feel the Siege tends to be more reliable every turn. Tome of Legends does seem like it could be pretty good in this deck considering how often our general attacks. Let me know how that one works for ya.

The deck doesn't tend to struggle with other aggressive/stompy decks because of all the board wipes that are in the deck. I think Winter Orb probably works better in the weapons of war build than this build since the larger focus on equipment makes getting Sword of Feast and Famine easier.

The creatures are definitely the cards in this deck that I feel are most flexible. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is an amazing card, and I've definitely thought about picking it up and trying it before, it could probably swap places with Urabrask the Hidden. I really wanted Neheb, the Eternal to work, but every time I played it I rarely had anything to do with the red mana haha. All in all though I want this deck to be aggressive, so I don't want the top end of this deck to get too heavy, or I find my hands getting more and more clunky.

I do have to point out though that this isn't a deck meant to compete with cEDH decks. If you stuck it in a cEDH pod and have a strong, competent pilot really thinking about and making the correct plays, it would definitely seem really threatening to all the decks that aren't used to the aggression, but it could never win as fast as it relies on combat damage. I think it would sneak out 1 in 5 games in a cEDH pod. If we were to use the command zone deck rating scale, I would say this deck edges on the end of optimized, an 8.5 or so. I will say that adding back Helm of the Host would probably make this deck a tad stronger, but I took it out because I got bored of it haha.

So, TL;DR, I'm feeling pretty good about most of the deck, the creatures are the ones I feel best about swapping out, and I feel I want a few more pieces of instant speed interaction.

DespairFaction on Boros Aurelia

2 weeks ago

On the opposite side of the coin Ive been doing a lot of Aurelia deck reviews lately, so based on my past experience heres what changes I would make. The first issue that jumped out at me is the number of 3 drops. This always becomes a problem when you run a lot of the swords, however when deck building I will often shift the swords to the 5 CMC slot visually just because that is much more inline with how they perform. Anyway with this being the case I always want to make sure my 3 CMC cards are essentially over performing because its so crowded, and the other thing is that you do want to have some number of bigger plays as the game goes later or if someone ramps hard. I recently destroyed all the tokens of Avenger of Zendikar with an Elesh Norn which was 7 drop vs 7 drop...you won't get that by running entirely 3 drops. When the game gets big, you want some ability to go big as well.

I would probably cut captain lannery storm as a result. I would add signet or talisman in its place. Combat celebrant has generally also underperformed for me so In place of that, the card you need more than anything else in this deck is Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite its removal, and its team pump for a deck full of small creatures. In short its a game winner.

Depending on how winds of abandon is performing, that would most likely be the slot for generous gift/chaos warp. By running both of those I notice that glacial chasm and spore frog aren't nearly the problems they used to be for me. In general I don't love that wind's of abandon gives something back to opponents, it can be a problem sometimes, so I might go for Volcanic Offering instead since blowing up key lands or just slowing your opponents while also taking out the 2 best creatures in play of your opponents.

Next Outpost Siege has never been my favorite, Light Up the Stage is a bit more immediate, but lately Ive been really hot on Commune with Lava especially when you've got feast and famine in play since you can float mana. Commune has the ability to grab 2 early if you just need a land or you can scale X to go bigger in the late game. You'll need to play it a few times it does require a small amount of skill to get it just right, but Id go that route over outpost. Tome of Legends is a card that i am currently trying to get tested, but i never seem to draw it, however it looks very promising in Aurelia. Beyond that, I've also used Prophetic Flamespeaker in the past. It wears equipments well and will get you to look at some extra cards, and it works best in a low curve deck like this because of the nature of impulse draw.

Here are things that I very much want to add but don't have room for but you might want to consider. Blackblade Reforged it deletes players from the game, especially if you have double strike. Umezawa's Jitte its easily the most complicated equipment since its range of performance goes from does nothing up to wins the game. Neheb, the Eternal It just makes so much mana and its good on attacking and blocking also. Archangel of Thune predominantly to make your hate bears bigger and close the game quicker.

Here are some very interesting cards to think about that Ive used or have been trying to test more. Backdraft Hellkite slow but flashback on your spells. Helm of Possession Turn your 2 drops into someones consecrated sphinx or commander. Its somewhat skill intensive, but stealing other peoples stuff is absurdly powerful. You currently don't have a fog effect other than teferi's in the deck which makes me nervous, maybe its a meta call but I really like a fog that can be brought back with mist veil plains so Comeuppance or Dawn Charm depending if you value the lower CMC vs more power. Also as a nice, this deck does look a bit soft to other aggro or big stompy decks.

Next, lets talk about stax. You've got some light stax to medium stax happening in this deck. If you want to bring it to the next level here are some super nasty options. God-Pharaoh's Statue this thing makes it super hard for your opponents to cast anything and just grinds them to hault.. they won't be comboing off through this. Next, my personal favorite its very good as you get toward the Cedh side of things, is Winter Orb once again it crushes combo decks, crushes tatyova and golos style decks and other big ramp decks, and really any deck that doesn't have just tons of big creatures in play. Its very skill intensive, but the key to break parity is Feast and famine and Neheb. Next Blind Obedience its nasty, and if you draw enough cards its a win condition, plus life gain which is also relevant. If you find that other aggro or stompy decks are problem, take a look at Angelic Arbiter you basically don't lose to creature decks. Aura of Silence is also very real, sometimes a little slow but can come back with sun titan...happens occasionally.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing another protection spell in the deck. Many choices available here Eerie Interlude, Legion's Initiative Brought Back and even just Cloudshift Ephemerate bring some amount of protection but can also be used for the 3rd combat trick amongst other things.

Alright those are my thoughts for now. I am sure thats plenty to think about. Let me know if you have any questions :) -PJ, Commander Replay