Lion's Eye Diamond

Artifact

Sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond, Discard your hand: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Play this ability only any time you could play an instant.

Combos

• Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond
• Lion's Eye Diamond + Underworld Breach
• Brought Back + Eternal Witness + Lion's Eye Diamond

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

sylvannos on Hoax Storm v2

3 months 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 {UR} 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 {0}, 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.

king-saproling on Count the Bells, Heed the Chimes

4 months ago

So cool! Never thought I'd see Sphinx of the Chimes in EDH. Personally I'd cut Street Wraith due to the risk of hitting it with The Bridge.

You might like these: Shadow of the Grave, Lion's Eye Diamond, Mizzix's Mastery

sylvannos on Brother's War Spoilers

7 months ago

I'm not going crazy and I'm reading this right, right?

This card is pure value? Like...I can make a bigger Tarmogoyf or get back Lotus Bloom? I feel like this card isn't real. Almost seems too good for a common. And you can get nuttier with cards like Thassa's Oracle or Sword of the Meek. You can even get back Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Unearth is good, but it doesn't grab Lion's Eye Diamond.

Ardees on Gates? Nine Fingers Keene Competitive

7 months ago

If you are aiming at 'competitive' in the technical sense of the term (as in 'cEDH' or 'competitive EDH'), like the title seems to suggest, I see many staples missing that unfortunately make the deck quite far from being competitive.

Artifacts: you should be running at least Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mana Vault, Jeweled Lotus, maybe even Grim Monolith and Lion's Eye Diamond.,

Tutors: you are missing Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, and Worldly Tutor and Green Sun's Zenith if you run any combo, win, or strategy whatsoever based on creatures. You could also add Wishclaw Talisman and Solve the Equation, and, although not a tutor, Peer into the Abyss, which works quite nicely with Thought Vessel.

Lands: any competitive deck plays true duals, namely Underground Sea, Bayou, and Tropical Island. Same for shocklands and at least 6-7 fetchlands in a 3-color deck like this one. You could also consider lower the number of lands, depending on whether or not you want to keep the Gate strategy

Protection: any competitive deck that plays blue automatically plays top-end counterspells, namely Swan Song, Arcane Denial, Force of Will, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, Fierce Guardianship, Mental Misstep, An Offer You Can't Refuse, and Flusterstorm. You are also missing key cards like Cyclonic Rift or Chain of Vapor. Needless to say, ideally a competitive deck playing blue also plays Timetwister: not a counterspell but a must card (yeah, the price is another topic of conversation).

Creatures: I understand the Gate theme but you are missing some high-value creature cards in here, most notably Dauthi Voidwalker, Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip, Lotus Cobra, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Ramunap Excavator, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Oracle of Mul Daya, Elvish Reclaimer - to name a few. Much depends on the strategy of your deck, although don't let keywords aligned with your strategy (e.g. 'Gate') fool you into thinking some cards are good for that.

Enchantments: a few staples in the current competitive meta: Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Sylvan Library, Burgeoning, Exploration, maybe Abundance and Necropotence

Removals: you could most definitely swap some of your removals for something better and more competitive, such as Force of Vigor, Nature's Claim, Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy, and more.

Now, I totally understand there is a budget situation going on with upgrading to competitive MtG (spoiler alert: MtG is a pay-to-win type of game, research confirms), but generally the term 'competitive' sticks to decks that, to the very least, include most if not all cards mentioned above - without mentioning the fact that any competitive deck needs running at least one winning combo. At this stage, your level is more looking towards casual. This isn't to criticize you or anything of course, pretty interesting build, just not really a competitive deck in its strict sense.

If you want to try the competitive experience, my suggestion is to proxy cards by printing them online - this should cost around 10 bucks on colored and good quality paper, and effectively save you more than 7k worth of cards.

legendofa on Drake Support (Reworked)

8 months ago

Lion's Eye Diamond is a key card in a lot of dredge, reanimator, or other recursion decks that want a full graveyard, as well as decks that can empty their hand quickly for a minimal discard.

I'll review the Drakes in detail when I have more time, but I see some very interesting ideas in there.

Stardragon on Drake Support (Reworked)

8 months ago

TheOfficialCreator

If I'm going to be completely honest I still don't see the in point Lion's Eye Diamond ik it suppose to be a power effect but the discarding your hand for three mana mean you can use the mana on activated abilities which can be powerful but I rarely think it worth giving up your hand for unless you have 1 or 2 dead weights in your hand I. I just though it fits with drakes so i made a drake into one

TheOfficialCreator on Drake Support (Reworked)

8 months ago

Kazirak is very, very powerful. I love it. It has the potential (and high likelihood, tbh) to double your creature count every turn. And in the colors of Terror of the Peaks, no less. Very strong, but not busted, I don't think. I might consider upping the cost by one.

I like the Diamond drake. I don't know that the card draw ability makes a whole lot of sense given the original purpose of Lion's Eye Diamond, but I suppose it makes sense that a drake would do that.

legendofa on Favorites and Bests

8 months ago

I like these questions. Just giving everyone a chance to talk about themselves is an underrated art form.

My favorite color pair is {B}{G}. I'm happiest when I can out-resource my opponents in as many ways as possible--mana, cards in hand, board presence, etc., and the combination of {G}'s ramp and creatures, and {B}'s removal and discard, and their overlap in graveyard recursion, draw power, and lifegain, is what drew me to this combination. I'm happiest when my opponents have run out of steam and I'm still going strong, especially after they've thrown their best at me.

I can't pick out a strongest color pair; their strengths and weaknesses can't really be compared. The strongest color combination is the one that you're most comfortable using and that brings you the most satisfaction.

I would not remove {U} from the game. It's arguably the most technical and tactical color, and it provides checks on a lot of different formats. If you've never seen a Saskia vs. Edgar vs. Dragonlord Dromoka vs. Atla EDH match, it's a race to see who gets out the most, biggest creatures out the fastest before someone combos off or beats everyone else down. If you enjoy that, great! It can be a lot of fun. But I like a little more tactics and trickery, and {U} provides that angle that the other colors don't have. Counterspells, unlockable creatures, and Control Magic effects may not always be fun on the receiving end, but they provide a needed depth to gameplay.

The main three ways I see creature Auras being made stronger are recursion (Rancor, Spirit Loop), replacement (Griffin Guide, Mantle of the Wolf), and protection (Diplomatic Immunity, Indestructibility). If the Aura provides a new threat when it goes away, or just refuses to go away, it makes the two-for-one problem much more manageable.

My favorite tribe is Skeletons. They're more interesting than Zombies, smell better, require less care and feeding, and Zombies are spotlight hogs, getting new powerful cards almost every set while Skeletons keep getting maybe one or two cards a year (usually worse than a Zombie option). Outside of being the forgotten cousin of Zombies (one of my least favorites--can you tell?), I like Skeletons on their own merits. The skull and bone aesthetic is always popular, going back at least to medieval Memento Mori art, and Skeleton Scavengers's Regenerate was one of the first complex abilities I learned how to use properly, so they have some nostalgia factor for me as well.

For lands, I almost always go for the 40% and adjust as needed--faster, lower-cost decks get less; slower, more controll-y decks get more. I try to err on the side of having a couple too many lands than not enough. I do have a goal of one day owning a Legacy or even Vintage Dredge deck, though, and those can have single-digit land counts (does anyone have a pile of Lion's Eye Diamonds or Bazaar of Baghdad they want to give away for free?). I don't usually use the MDFC lands myself, but I've seen them used well, and the Pathways are a great option if you can't or don't want to shell out for the shocklands, fast lands, or other big-money lands. (They're still above what I would call truly budget, though.)

wallisface If I may speak for the OP, this doesn't appear to be focused on any specific format. It's asking questions about what you enjoy, how you feel about certain cards and effects, and general chatting.