Magistrate's Scepter

Artifact

{4}, {T}: Put a charge counter on Magistrate's Scepter.

{T}, Remove three charge counters from Magistrate's Scepter: Take an extra turn after this one.

Combos

• Energy Chamber + Magistrate's Scepter

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
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (43)

DemonDragonJ on Kalonian Hydra or Bristly Bill?

19 hours ago

Last_Laugh, I prefer Fathom Mage over Danny Pink, since her ability has no limit to the number of times that it can trigger, and I actually would very much like to put Magistrate's Scepter in place of Otherworld Atlas, but the first ability simply costs too much mana to activate.

SaberTech on Atraxa Stax

8 months ago

I think that this deck list is still a bit unfocused. It is basically saying that it wants to stall things out and win with poison counters, and it has the Magistrate's Scepter + Coretapper + Atraxa, Praetors' Voice combo for infinite turns, but there are a number of cards included that will only do synergistic things some of the time that will water down your meaningful draws.

Some cards to consider to increase your potential to kill with poison counters include Evolution Sage, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, Inexorable Tide, and Phyresis Outbreak. I'm also kind of partial to Viral Drake. Tekuthal can act as an alternative to Coretapper for your Magistrate's Scepter combo.

I think that a lot of your STAX stuff will often feel lackluster since you aren't running any support to help you break parity on them. To get the most out of Winter Orb and Stasis it helps to have cards such as Nature's Will or Sword of Feast and Famine. There are also cards that tap down permanents/artifacts that you can use to tap down the Orbs at the end of your opponent's turn so that you can untap all your lands on your turn.

Cards that drain life like Scheming Aspirant and Bloodchief Ascension probably aren't worth it if you are trying to kill with poison counters. The life gain that you get off them is also pretty negligible. Although, if you had Mindcrank to combo with the Ascension it could function as a backup win condition.

You don't actually run that many cards that put counters on themselves or other cards you control, so Power Conduit and Soul Diviner look pretty lackluster on the basis of them not likely being consistent value when you draw into them.

I don't know what your commander meta is like, but in general there isn't a lot of targeted land destruction in casual games. Tomik, Distinguished Advokist will rarely be of any worth in most casual groups unless you regularly play against someone who uses cards like Crucible of Worlds to net value off of fetch lands and utility lands.

You have very few artifacts that send themselves to the graveyard. I think there is an argument to be made that you will rarely get much value out of Glissa, the Traitor's ability, even taking into consideration the possibility of getting back artifacts that opponents destroy. Still a decent blocker I guess. A more general effect like Eternal Witness in that slot may provide more consistent value though.

Those are just a few suggestions. I could think of more once I have a better idea of how you are looking to develop the deck further.

Shazica on

1 year ago

I have a very similar deck with Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker as commanders. I was looking into having Atraxa as a commander instead, but Atraxa is infamous for being a very strong creature that amasses tons of scary, unpredictable value - it is a poison deck? Is it a +1/+1 counters deck? Is it a superfriends deck? Most often, you will find that the other players have Rule 0-ed you as the archenemy before the game begins.

There are two things you can do about this. You can either rise up to the challenge, or you can change commander.

If you want to take on the challenge of constant Archenemy because you want to keep Atraxa, then you have multiple cards that are too weak. Some of which are Arcus Acolyte, the three Myojins, Pollenbright Druid, Murder, Magistrate's Scepter, Chromatic Lantern, Vivisurgeon's Insight, and Expand the Sphere for starters. There are probably 10-20 more I would consider cutting, since these are too casual for the level of play you're signaling with Atraxa. Instead, run low-mana spells like Nature's Lore, Night's Whisper, Fierce Guardianship, Heroic Intervention, Flawless Maneuver, Deadly Rollick, Mystic Remora, Cyclonic Rift, Negate, Swan Song, the WUBG shock lands with their fetches, the list goes on... This won't make your deck cEDH, this will make it more reliable, reactive, and consistent in answering most of your opponents stuff.

If you want to change commanders, you can go for Falco Spara, Pactweaver for value, Anafenza, the Foremost for aggressive, Ghave, Guru of Spores for combo, or the partner pairings of Cazur, Ruthless Stalker  ^Flip + Ukkima, Stalking Shadow, or Nikara, Lair Scavenger + Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel. All of these will force you to abandon a fourth color, but restriction breeds creativity...?

Side note 1: You can still run Atraxa in the 99, that is a more commonly accepted usage.

Side note 2: You have two Ivy Lane Denizen.

Ize19 on ⧗ ⧖ ⧗ Charge Coun-turns ⧗ ⧖ ⧗

1 year ago

Fun extra turns deck! Every time I see Coretapper & Magistrate's Scepter in a deck, I check to see if Mimic Vat is there. It's honestly Coretapper's best friend, as it allows the little guy to produce 3 charge counters on each of your turns, for just 3 mana each time. If you have any artifact untappers (Voltaic Key, Manifold Key) you can do it more than once a turn! Just a suggestion, upvoting the deck, good work!

Ize19 on TIME PRISON - Infinite turns control

1 year ago

Love the deck, Magistrate's Scepter is the most underrated Extra Turn spell in the same!

Love the inclusion of Emry, may I also suggest Mimic Vat? Further recursion of your Coretapper, or insurance in case someone wants to take out your Emry, Lurker of the Loch, it's does a lot for 3 mana a turn!

ThatWeirdPerson on It's Just a Flesh Wound ($100 Meren)

1 year ago

Well Coretapper and Magistrate's Scepter is a win con, I didn't want to focus on it because there are many other ways to win by bringing back Avenger of Zendikar once or twice, or sacrificing a ton of stuff to Carrion Feeder, Defiant Salvager, Fallen Angel and Ravenous Gigantotherium. Kessig Cagebreakers and Titan Hunter can rack up damage quite quick too. For this reason I don't think the excessive amount of mana rocks are necessary but some of the tors you included I may work on implementing such as Final Parting because it gets me both Coretapper and Magistrate's Scepter and Wishclaw Talisman because it has a chance to to that. Maybe some of the others if I find cards to replace

Ardees on It's Just a Flesh Wound ($100 Meren)

1 year ago

Consider playing also Manglehorn, Collector Ouphe, Nature's Claim, and some cheap removals, which you seem to lack.

I think the decks has largely improved since you posted it. Now I think you should focus on your strategy. Gaining exp counters or reanimate isn't a strategy per se, but it's the engine that should get your strategy running. I see you run the Magistrate's Scepter and Coretapper combo. I think this is a much more valuable combo, which is being played in competitive decks too. Also don't get focused too much on getting exp counters. Assume you have infinite: you don't reanimate infinite creatures, nor an infinitely powerful creature. You reanimate one creature at the end of each of your turn, assuming (which is unlikely) that Meren is left unscathed. So consider exp counters a facilitator toward your strategy rather than the goal in itself (hence why Spider Spawning isn't that valuable, in my opinion).

If you run a combo, I suggest playing more (cheap) tutors, such as Final Parting, Mausoleum Secrets, Unmarked Grave, Buried Alive, Profane Tutor, Wishclaw Talisman. Also, if you decide to run a combo, then other cards in your deck should aim at achieving that rather than do things that are separate from it, meaning you should include all 1-mana elves, and all cheap mana dorks (both enchantements and artifacts) to help you achieve your strategy.

You can also just decide to go aggro, but then I'd simply suggest to play a budget version of Skullbriar, the Walking Grave rather than Meren.

In any case, your mana curve is still quite high, 3.26 essentially means you play one spell each turn, possible no spells for the first 2 turns.

DemonDragonJ on Extra Turns Outside of Blue

2 years ago

Blue is the color of temporal manipulation, and, therefore, the color of extra turns, but, on occasion, other colors can have extra turns, as well.

I feel that extra turns outside of blue are acceptable, but only under the proper conditions, such as losing the game unless you win, as is the case in red, forcing another player to pay life, as in Temporal Extortion, or taking the time to build up to it, as with Magistrate's Scepter.

As a side note, I severely dislike that every extra turn spell in recent years exiles itself, because I like taking multiple extra turns, and I do not think that there is anything wrong with that, as long as the cost for doing so is extremely high.

What does everyone else say about this? How do you feel about extra turns outside of blue?