Combos Browse all Suggest
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 |
| Modern Beyond Horizons | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Planar Constructed | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Magus of the Mirror
Creature — Human Wizard
Tap, Sacrifice Magus of the Mirror: Exchange life totals with target opponent. Play this ability only during your upkeep.
Arthursb on
MonoBlack - Devotion Control
1 year ago
Hello SufferFromEDHD and Profet93, thank you for the comments!
I have tried some of suggested cards, maybe it's worth to share the insights:
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Black has limited lifegain sources that don't depend on sacrifice (eg.: Zulaport Cutthroat), so I compensate it by adding many tutors that search for Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Making Gary the backbone of the deck is, of course, risky;
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Speaking of tutors, Insidious Dreams is horrible for X=1, great for X=2, and usually means "I WIN" for X=3, as it fetches Bolas's Citadel, Sensei's Divining Top and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, plus acts as a discard outlet when needed;
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I don't focus on sacrifice-based strategies as they naturally decrease devotion, which makes Erebos and Gary less effective. It is also the reason I don't add colorless mass destruction to deal with enchantments: I need my own enchantments to stay;
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Gravestorm is great for devotion and has potential for an extra draw, but it usually backfires, as the opponents remove their best creatures from their graveyard, thus I lose targets for Animate Dead and others;
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I avoid adding combos where the pieces are bad individually. For example, Rings of Brighthearth makes infinite mana, but is a dead card when the other pieces are not already there. Similarly, I have never had success with Contamination in practice;
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Worst Fears is super fun but matchup dependent, I think it's risky to add cards with CMC > 6 that don't 100% help me win the game;
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Profane Transfusion, Mirror Universe, Magus of the Mirror and Soul Conduit are all on my "to test" list, and some "gotcha" cards like Imp's Mischief, Darkness, Sudden Spoiling and Hellish Rebuke too.
Having said all that, in the next update I'll add more creatures and Whip of Erebos in this deck to have more blockers and lifegain. I'm having issues to deal with voltron decks where the commanders reaches high power before I'm able to turn Erebos into a creature.
CinnaBunMon on
Wacky Waving Infallible Life Flailing Masochists
1 year ago
Thanks for the tip!
I've actually been using this deck for a few years now and haven't run into cards that stop life gain too often (I think my playgroups just don't use them very much). It does slow the deck down quite a bit and makes you have to actually think more... might take that extra removal into consideration. Maybe something like Felidar Cub so I can get it back with Ravos and other graveyard recursion cards. I do have Sunforger which helps search them up (but that's really it...).
For the most part, when I've ran into things that stop life gain I've either been able to remove it pretty easily, or put both me and it's controller in a position where we're easy to kill (sort of a "take you down with me" move). Using something like Repay in Kind or Magus of the Mirror to take us both to 1 life is dang satisfying.
Lol yeah, I've been knocked out of the game with Atarka's Command before and got a good laugh out of it.
Asgeren on Mono black bling bling
2 years ago
A friend of mine build him around draining is own life for value and then swapping life using Magus of the Mirror and such spells with other players - super funny and cool deck! x)
Squee_Spirit_Guide on
Life Swap Shenanigans!
2 years ago
Very nice! I love this kind of strategy. Magus of the Mirror seems like it would fit the flavour of the deck. With Phyrexian Unlife it's ability is an insta-kill for players. Angel's Grace might be nice too to let you life swap and kill someone immediately.
For taking care of indestructible 'players can't gain life' cards, exile effects like Oblivion Ring or Path to Exile would be good.
Balaam__ on
I'm not dead, you're dead!
2 years ago
This was very interesting to comb through. My gut instinct said ‘Pick Magus of the Mirror’ too. In the preliminary draft in my mind I missed some great choices you didn’t (like Spoils of the Vault), but on the other hand I’m surprised Wall of Blood didn’t make the list.
Squee_Spirit_Guide on Andramalech
2 years ago
Alright, here we go! An honest, straightforward, totally fair deck built around Magus of the Mirror :)
I linked to your deck in my FAQ, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. I did see Dark Depths though, so I'm excited to dive into it!
Squee_Spirit_Guide on Squee_Spirit_Guide
2 years ago
Andramalech, agreed. I like the Mangus/Martyr buildaround. Let's go with Vintage for the card pool. My mind is already working on an idea for Magus of the Mirror :)
Andramalech on Squee_Spirit_Guide
2 years ago
All right Squee_Spirit_Guide. It's time for the build-around challenge! When I crafted the list for Balaam__ I hand selected things I believed would interest them.
And without further ado, I introduce the "Martyr or Magus" challenge? Will you pick...
Martyr?
Magus?
- Magus of the Tabernacle
- Magus of the Disk
- Magus of the Jar
- Magus of the Bazaar
- Magus of the Mirror
- Magus of the Abyss
- Magus of the Wheel
- Magus of the Scroll
- Magus of the Vineyard
- Magus of the Candelabra
So do these creatures intrigue you? We have plenty of options for building possibilities, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on other ideas if this falls short.
| Have (3) | JordanSanFran , metalmagic , Surferdunks |
| Want (1) | TechNoble |