Lurking Predators

Enchantment

Whenever an opponent casts a spell, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, you may put that card on the bottom of your library.

Combos

• Cream of the Crop + Lurking Predators

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Kaweiwu on Eldrazi Bitches

1 month ago

Quicksilver Amulet, Elvish Piper, Monster Manual, Sol Ring, Lurking Predators, Sneak Attack etc come to mind. Also, i'd add 8-9 lands. 37-38 seems appropriate for this deck. If they don't lack flavour the usual supects like Birds of Paradise, maybe Exploration or the other one. Mayael the Anima

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

3 months ago

When I built my Meren deck, I found that even with a pretty Black heavy deck, it was nice to run more Green than Black mana sources, since my Green ramp fixed my Black mana. I also cut lands for repeatable (and potentially repeatable) ramp like Diligent Farmhand or the Dawntreader you're considering, these can not only help get Meren out early, they give her something very useful to do with her ability as soon as she's out. There are quite a few now, but I only run ones that can find swamps. I also run a couple cards like Wood Elves, which don't sac themselves but can be sacrificed for value as soon as Meren is out. Using these types of cards allows my fairly low land Meren deck to be extremely rampy if Meren stays out. You can also run lots of 1 mana dorks in Meren, including Elves of Deep Shadow and knock-off Llanowar Elves.

I also find it's hard to run enough card draw, stuff like Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper or Beast Whisperer can draw a bunch of cards, and all of them are creatures. This brings me to another point, I found that in Meren that it's hard to run too many utility creatures of various sorts, you can do an astonishing amount of stuff with creatures in Golgari, I presently have 55 creatures in the 99, which makes cards like Lurking Predators insane and Heartwood Storyteller lots of fun, because Meren decks are also pretty good at pressuring the board, it's hard to know how many of the various Demon's Disciple family of cards you should run, but they feel pretty decent in Meren in my experience, if a bit obnoxious. There are also more cards like Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, as well as Savra, Queen of the Golgari, these are all super-obnoxious in a deck that likes to sacrifice stuff. One really weird 'one creature toolbox' is Callous Bloodmage, this can do a bunch of stuff and can be worth recurring if you can get it killed.

Not sure if you've ever come across these, they are old and rare even in Commander, but I find Ritual of the Machine and Helm of Possession can do work in Meren, the Helm is a sac outlet that grabs the best creature on the board. It rarely lasts too long, but it's a very strong effect if you're not worried about running artifacts. Ritual is nice and compact, you sac something you want dead to steal the best thing in a way that's hard to interact with for many decks. Final Parting is an interesting card in Meren, you can put a Protean Hulk or Razaketh, the Foulblooded, maybe Sheoldred into the graveyard and a Reanimate into hand, so it's 6 or 7 mana to put your best creature into play from the library.

If you want any ideas about infinite (or non-infinite) combos that can win games, I read a lot of Meren deck Primers, so I might have some ideas if you want to have that option.

Very good deck so far, hope you enjoy testing it!

thefiresoflurve on Atraxa Crazy Counters

3 months ago

Hey, there!

Grateful Apparition is a slight upgrade to Thrummingbird (or could run both easily).

Semester's End could be some good board wipe evasion in a pinch, and sets you up to come back swinging.

If you're looking to run big creatures and cheat them in, you can do a bit better than Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. Defense of the Heart is low-key broken. Some other useful cards: Elvish Piper, Quicksilver Amulet, Lurking Predators. Depending on your average creature CMC, you could just run all of them and call it a day.

Kinnan does have the advantage of being instant speed and repeatable, but it's easier and cheaper (mana wise) to setup draw alongside play-from-hand effects than it is to put mana into that activated ability. I think it's just a bit too much of a slot investment to build into Kinnan as not-commander.

You probably want a Smothering Tithe and Rhystic Study in here unless your group runs truly obnoxious amounts of enchantment removal.

Boon of Safety with Atraxa is pretty useful, or Contractual Safeguard can do the same thing for all your creatures for just 2 additional mana. I'd probably prefer the latter if I had to choose, but both are good.

Happy building!

IllWarriors on Kura, Secret Tron EDH

5 months ago

Profet93, you've got a lot of good points, here are my thoughts...

1. I see your point with my inclusion of Thought Vessel and I would agree something like Heart Warden would be a good swap. In my experience with playing this deck so far, I've actually enjoyed having Thought Vessel as well as Reliquary Tower. When to comes to tutoring for lands, there are usually some more important hits before I would go for the Tower. The tron lands are usually first, but then if I do get another chance to search I'll go for some more explosive plays since I'm usually looking for something like Eye of Ugin, Gaea's Cradle, or Sanctum of Ugin to really pop off. In the games where I have been able to draw a ton of cards past hand size, it's been nice to have that redundancy. That being said, I can see myself playing around with swapping it for something more useful in the future.

2. You're totally right about Tempt with Discovery. However, in my current meta we tend not to run loads of LD. It's just not really how we like to play. In the few games where that has come up, I've just had to politics my way aroud it. It's got a lot of potential for explosive turns, but should my meta shift to feature more LD I can easily see myself swapping it out.

3. Yup, I think I'll take you up on the Skyshroud Claim. Burnished Hart is a card I like to throw into a lot of decks, but after play testing a bit, it's felt pretty slow since it takes 6 mana total to get the effect.

4. I like the idea of Skullclamp. I did run Bequeathal, and Skullclamp feels like a repeatable version of that. I think it's definitely something I'll consider freeing up space for.

5. Eternal Witness should've been in this deck a while ago. I liked the lower cost of Regrowth but I like the value of having another body on the field while I'm setting up or trying to re-establish a foothold in the game, so I'm definitely swapping that out.

6. Lurking Predators has probably led to the most explosive and fun games this deck has had. You're totally right that I won't get cast triggers, but honestly those have been mostly negligible once Predators has been out for a turn cycle. Hitting any of the titans or something like Blightsteel Colossus most of the time is enough to close out the game, especially if you hit multiple.

7. I'm always curious as to what others might cut, so I'm all ears.

8. Land count was something I was worried about with such a high curve, but so far that hasn't been much of an issue. It really comes down to taking the right hand and usually you're just fine. Most the time, once you hit 5 mana and can get Kura, the Boundless Sky out, you're all set. It feels a little low especially when I do run cards like Exploration, but my intention behind that was to be able to get tron lands out faster once they're in hand, and not necessarily to hit a land drop every turn.

9. I don't run fetchlands because I just don't want to. Would it make the deck better? Absolutely. It's another one of those situations where I know it would improve the deck, so I'm intentionally trying to balance the deck from being too good. The intent behind this deck is to be explosive and play big bombs, but not be a pubstomper. Because of that, I'm making sure to carefully balance how fast the deck can play.

10. I love Scapeshift! I know I considered it back when I made the deck but it must've slipped my mind. It's a definite candidate, especially as a good swap for Tempt with Discovery.

Thanks for your feedback! I really enjoyed reading all of your thoughts!

NV_1980 on Gym Leader Mayael Wants to Battle

5 months ago

After play-testing 10 games with this against some of my own decks, here's what I found:

• In 6 out of 10 games, I could only play lands and cast Mayael for the first 6 turns, after which I could start using her ability. In 2 out of 10 games, I could also cast a ramp spell and play one more land (so I could use her ability by turn 5). In the two remaining games, it took longer to utilize Mayael (7 and 8 turns) and/OR hard-cast creatures. In my meta, this is a bit problematic as it is just too slow. I understand you don't want to include mana-weenies, because they mess up the results of Mayael's ability, but maybe you could consider some more ramping options. Some more mana-rocks maybe? Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone and Chromatic Lantern come to mind.
• Mayael is quite vulnerable. In the games I tested, she was dispatched multiple times with ease. Since you're relying on her for most of your strategy, maybe include some more protection like Swiftfoot Boots, Boros Charm, Flawless Maneuver, Vigor, Asceticism or Archetype of Endurance.
• The speed of your deck could also be improved by adding a few haste enablers; maybe stuff like Rhythm of the Wild or Fervor?
• Last but not least, with so many nice high-cost beaters in your deck you could also greatly benefit from the use of cards like Cream of the Crop, Lurking Predators and especially Kodama of the East Tree.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck with your brew.

CardTyrant on Ixalan Park

6 months ago

lhetrick13: Thank you for the comment. As a filthy casual, I found commander really easy to get into. I would only play kitchen table with friends and family, sometimes going to prereleases. The only thing I found hard to grasp was commander damage. At home we don't even keep track of it.

Descendants' Path and Lurking Predators were considered for the deck but were cut because of space limitations.

DreadKhan on Ruric Thar Anti control

7 months ago

I find I like Lurking Predators in my 55 creature Meren deck, I suspect it'd do a lot of work in here, especially if someone locks up your Commander somehow, almost a backup Commander.

I could be wrong, but would Tyrite Sanctum work in here? Ruric isn't that big really, so +1 access isn't a bad thing from a land, and an Indestructible counter would be sweet on Ruric, now people can't as easily wipe your board.

If you're concerned with the 'no cards in library' issue of Primal Surge you could try running something like Endurance, which will let you make your graveyard your new library, which could give you a few turns if you play Surge late or make you safe from a Cephalid Coliseum. Just noticed that Enduranec is ~$50 card, sorry if that's way over budget, there may be another creature that can do this for you.

faustodemambo on The Ur-Dragon, quest for 100%

7 months ago

Bakterius

First of all I'm glad that you think this list look spowerfull and that you wanted to playtest it, always good to hear. Whats even better ofcourse is to hear that it walloped you (:

Ty for pointing that miirym flaw out, I still have to fix my explenation of the deck. I have recently moved and can't find the time to do that yet sadly. I'm have some time this weekend to fix everything again. I really want to rewrite everything as its prety outdated now.

Majestic Genesis is to expensive for me to cast. I'd prefer cards like Monster Manual, Sneak Attack or probably the best one Lurking Predators but I have moved away from "cheating" creatures in to play and started playing other "sub themes" like lifelink, reanimation and more removal cards. As I'm writing this out I think I'm also allowed to play Birds of Paradise as my bigest problem with the card was that it was a 1 cmc creature and I didn't want to cheat it in to play.

As for the list itself I have spend a lot of time on it and found out that not relying completely on dragons is the safer and stronger way to play as I get wiped a LOT. Because of this I had to start playing ohter cards to still be in the game. Most of the times if a few permanents other than ramp stay on the board it spirals in to a win for me which I love.

I do have one rule for myself and thats that I can never dip below 25 dragon's as I still want to be playing the big bois often. And Dragon Broodmother always has to be in. Its very strong and probably my favorite magic card.

fixed hand looks to be that you have 7 cards per row and go down or you have 1 big row with all the cards in your hand.