Magus of the Arena

Creature — Human Wizard

(3), Tap: Tap target creature you control and target creature of an opponent's choice he or she controls. Each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other.

Legality

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

Discussion (16)

GoldenDiggle on Building a new deck.

2 years ago

Hey Man! Cool deck idea, perhaps I can help a bit.

First off, both Pyrohemia and Scourge of Kher Ridges as well as any way to recur them (in case they are destroyed or the board is wiped) are probably best here.

Obviously Firespout , Pyroclasm , Crush the Weak , Fiery Confluence and Anger of the Gods are good options for you to ping or clear boards. Some of the odd ones are Hail Storm and Magma Vein . Chaos Maw and Cinder Giant are cool options here as well.

Fights are great if you pick on smaller creatures, Gruul Ragebeast and Magus of the Arena come to mind here. As far as other creatures go, Raging Swordtooth is cool too.

Devastate is pricey but lets you build a board first. I'm not sure if Sporeweb Weaver is on your radar or not, but I hope it is now!

loricatuslupus on Howlin' With the Pack

3 years ago

On yeah I know of Tomer, wouldn't be one of his articles without the suggestion of Vedalken Orrery! Not really seeing much suggested that I don't already have or want though apart from some non-wolves like Foe-Razer Regent, Magus of the Arena and Norwood Priestess - which I'm deliberately avoiding to stay in theme (as I say in the description, this is just a casual deck so I'm not too concerned about optimisation. But thanks anyway!

Tzefick on Defender of the Heart, revised

4 years ago

enpc I understand that was your intention, but that seems to be from a standpoint that you want to lower the CMC. My point is that the creature itself would be more whole, if you kept it expensive but viable by itself without necessarily needing additional help, unlike a 2/2 trampler. It reminds me of a similar issue with Spawnwrithe. Spawnwrithe is often too small, even in Commander pre-cons to actually be able to function and do what it wants to do. Then it just ends up being irrelevant all together.

If you consider the Magus creatures, they are often costed and stat'ed to match what they intend to do and how their counterpart functions. Magus of the Bazaar is low stat'ed and cheap to cast because its main function is a creature-version of the Bazaar of Baghdad, so it doesn't need high stats as it needs to be used early and readily. It's not there for combat, it's there for the active ability. You want it early.

In difference to Magus of the Coffers who mirrors Cabal Coffers. Here the Magus is higher stat'ed and more costly, despite the counterpart is also a land. The Cabal Coffers is usually used as a late-game tool to explode some mana advantage, and the creature reflects that.

Magus of the Arena is also a very expensive creature, that is better stat'ed to better go with the fight-ability of it's counterpart Arena. If the Magus was weak, it would need help to function - on top of being a creature, whereas Arena is a land with no further inherent cost and is much better protected than a creature.

Magus of the Mind has the CMC of its counterpart Mind's Desire but also a more fair stat'ed body with a cheap activation to get the actual spell - in many ways it is better positioned to function than Mind's Desire itself, as it is very mana cheap the turn you break it, which opens up mana to cast spells to grant its active good value. The downside is that it is a creature and has summoning sickness, so opponents can deal with it or plan accordingly.

Magus of the Balance is the most different as it carries the CMC of its counterpart Balance, but with a heavier activation cost on the ability. And all the Maguses who mirrors a sorcery can still go off at instant speed, despite WotC's ability to limit it, and without adding to the cost of the active ability compared to the cost of the original counterpart. Granted Balance is also banned in all formats and restricted in Vintage, so it speaks more volume to the wrong costing and effect of Balance than the Magus itself being an outlier.

Boza on Ability challenge

4 years ago

Any variation on that, huh

Hunter mechanic Show

Hunter is both a new creature subtype and a new keyword. It can appear on any creature as the "class" like "Creature - Minotaur Hunter". Furthermore, this ability distinguishes between the race and class of a creature type. So, if you wanted to hunt Magus of the Arena, you cannot say "wizard", you must say "human". I think that ability will be very at home in Ikoria, or something like Eldraine Set 2 or if we go back to Jund or Vivien's home plane. The usual colors for this mechanic are Jund, primary in green and secondary in black and red.

Hunt N (At the beginning of your end step, choose a creature race. This creature gets +N/+N until end of turn when blocking or being blocked by a creature with that race.)

Hunter cards Show

Treetop Bowman
Creature - Elf Hunter (Common)

Reach
Hunt 1 (At the beginning of your end step, choose a creature race. This creature gets +N/+N until end of turn when blocking or being blocked by a creature with that race.)

2/3

Vinejaw Pursuer
Creature - Plant Hunter (Uncommon)

Defender
Hunter 3
As long as an opponent controls a creature you are hunting, ~ may attack as though it did not have defender.

2/4

Korvold, Hunting for Revenge Creature - Dragon Hunter (Mythic)

Flying, trample
Hunt 2
Whenever a creature is sacrificed, you may change your hunted race to that creature's race.
At the beginning of combat on each turn, you may sacrifice a permanent. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Korvold.

3/5

dbpunk on Ability challenge

4 years ago

Oh and Magus of the Arena but you have a point.

TheMillKid on Kresh, Ultimate Fighting Champion

5 years ago

Have you heard of Arena and the Magus of the Arena ? They also allow you to start fights when you want! Ezuri's Predation is also a big-time brawl! (and "one-side" board wipe if you give the beasts you make deathtouch!) Setessan Tactics is another good way to make creatures duke it out.

Happy brewing!

BMHKain on BMH's Biggest Hot Take: Magus' …

5 years ago

NOTE: these are just my thoughts, backed up by points regarding both the Magus, & the Original. Be warned.

cEDH is, IMO, a subformat willing to drain you of all of your wallet; with one card. So I'm going to show why sometimes, even a Magus could be an (OK) alt.

Before we start this fish fry, keep in mind, I know some staples aren't even expensive; but some are just out of even the range of some of the the most lavish of Mercadia.

Before we begin, I just want to show the comparison to the Magus version to the original version of said cards. So? What the heck are we waiting for?

1. Magus of the Abyss

2. Magus of the Arena

3. Magus of the Balance

4. Magus of the Bazaar

5. Magus of the Candelabra

6. Magus of the Coffers

7. Magus of the Disk

8. Magus of the Future

9. Magus of the Jar

10. Magus of the Library

11. Magus of the Mind

12. Magus of the Mirror

13. Magus of the Moat

14. Magus of the Moon

15. Magus of the Tabernacle

16. Magus of the Vineyard

17. Magus of the Wheel

18. Magus of the Will

Yep. Fraggin 18 Magus' (possibly) worth playing in cEDH. Now for their original base cards...

1. The Abyss

2. Arena

3. Balance (BANNED AS ANYTHING.)

4. Bazaar of Baghdad

5. Candelabra of Tawnos

6. Cabal Coffers

7. Nevinyrral's Disk

8. Future Sight

9. Memory Jar

10. Library of Alexandria

11. Mind's Desire (Anyone got something closer?)

12. Mirror Universe

13. Moat (Obviously...)

14. Blood Moon

15. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

16. Eladamri's Vineyard

17. Wheel of Fortune

18. Yawgmoth's Will

Yep, these 17.5 (I'm not sure about Mind's Desire, though; just comment about whatever Magus of the Mind is an homage to, & I'll edit this...). Let's start with...

POINT 一

Yep, I'm doing Kanji for the points. Anyways...

1. Most of the latter cards are too expensive for some.

While I won't count Blood Moon, Nevinyrral's Disk, & even Future Sight (Thank Bolas those are Consistently being Reprinted.), We have stuff that can reach as far as 4 figures at worst. Ironically, stuffle like Eladamri's Vineyard is surprisingly cheap as well as its respective Magus. Sadly, that's where the point comes in. Most of the original cards in our economy are either:

A: In the 3 Figures >

B: Banned (See Balance; which, ironically, is cheaper than its Magus counterpart.)

C: Something your average decklist is worth in cash (Unless it requires 2 or 3 of them.)

Don't get me wrong, It's not that the card is "bad", it's just I can't just pay for something that I can make the rest of my deck with instead. Just my honest opinion...

POINT 二

1. They have the same Manacost/Effect

You may, & must have paid attention to the similarities of the Bases & the Magus'; those without a Land Base have an identical CMC, & even the same manacost regardless of either the Base/Magus. Don't believe me? Look above. The only Magus' to have costs to effects that are differing are Magus of the Balance, Magus of the Wheel, Magus of the Mind, & Magus of the Will even. Outside of this, Effects are entirely identical to the original. While manacosts are relatively high for Manacosts for Magus' with a Land version Base, nothing wrong with rocks/dorks, I guess...

POINT 三

1. Creatures can be supported by other cards for protection.

Sad to say, Creatures are among the most fragile of Permanents in all things Magic (The Most Fragile though, are Planeswalkers, they have yet to have a cEDH Deck of their own... Odd. :/) However, there are ways in which even in cEDH, Magus', & Creatures in general, do have some kind of protection:

Lightning Greaves is entirely versatile & can work in all decks in a pinch (Unless your Comander is a Walker, then you'll have to work on what creatures In The 99 (Or if you want to use both Will Kenrith, & Rowan Kenrith as Partner Commanders for The 98; But who in god's name would do that?!) Swiftfoot Boots has an equip cost, but generously gives creatures Hexproof. A solid Alt. for the "Other Boots of Haste". Trailblazer's Boots is the last to recommend for footwear as it has Nonbasic Landwalk. Effects from players with even a Fetchland will do zilch, & if the creature in question has a Power amount, it can bypass Blocks entirely. Problem? You'd need a Non-Basic yourself if your opponent attacks; but this is an impossibility for essentially, all the best cEDH decks! Cards like Flicker/Bounce/ and even Brago, King Eternal can bounce your own creatures, evading actual target. One of the Best examples of this is Venser, Shaper Savant who comes into play as a Triggered Ability; bypassing even stuff like Krosan Grip & even other stuff that threatens your cards. *For Auras, There are so many that work so well, I can't even make a list of them all. Aqueous Form makes enchanted creature Unblockable; & when it attacks, it allows you to Scry 1. Canopy Cover Allows your creature to be attacked by Fliers & those w/ Reach; that & it gets Hexproof. Even Gift of Immortality is capable of bringing back even Commanders if need be.

Not all Auras can be used appropriately in all 5 individual colors, but some Auras can screw with your opponents' cards in an attempt to disrupt their stratagem. in particular has stuff that affects the opponents' cards, & the opponent themselves. has Darksteel Mutation & has Imprisoned in the Moon, which essentially turns a creature, land, or even a Planeswalker into a Wastes.

This is still a WIP. Anyone having better ideas to protect Creatures in cEDH, let me know.

With that said, there are some things I actually would like to see WotC reprint as Magus'. I mean; Timetwister is expensive as garbage. But if the Magic Group can make a Magus for that, with a cost I guess, I'd be sold; that; & I wouldn't have to worry about exiling other Timetwister Variants. Nether Void is in the 4 figures, so why can't the R&D group do something about it with a Magus? Stuff from Legends, The Dark, & some others have Magus variants already, why not have some more?

Hello, I'm BMHKain. I apologize if I caused any offense, I'm a cheapskate since I started during Scars of Mirrodin. BTW, how can you guys even afford all this, & more? Just wondering...

Thanks for reading... ^_^ I had to edit this to be more... Conservative. That & I had to redo a Part entirely. Still in the works though. :/

dbpunk on Lets speculate on the confirmed …

5 years ago

Each of the colors have three magi from the cycles, one based on an enchantment for each color Magus of the Moat, Magus of the Future, Magus of the Abyss, Magus of the Moon and Magus of the Vineyard) one based on an artifact for each color (Magus of the Disk, Magus of the Jar, Magus of the Mirror, Magus of the Scroll and Magus of the Candelabra), one based on a land for each color (Magus of the Tabernacle, Magus of the Bazaar, Magus of the Coffers, Magus of the Arena and Magus of the Library) and one based on an sorcery for (the new Magus of Balance, Magus of the Mind, Magus of the Will and Magus of the Wheel). There is a fifth blue card called Magus of the Unseen, but that's not part of any cycle since it doesn't reference any single famous card. Probably next set they'll have a green Magus based on a sorcery.

Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Sower of Discord on here.