Mana Vortex

Enchantment

When you play Mana Vortex, you may sacrifice a land. If you don't, counter Mana Vortex.

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a land.

When there are no lands in play, sacrifice Mana Vortex.

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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Femme_Fatale on Commander bracket recommendation

3 weeks ago

note that the list hasn't been implemented yet. That specific part does hit Magus, Balance and Cataclysm but doesn't hit Razia's Purification, Balancing Act nor Pox. I can add in an additional option for permanents, Pox has unique wording so will have to be manually added.

This is what I have so far.

Mass Land Denial:

"sacrifice ... lands"
"each player sacrifices ... lands"
"return ... lands to their owner's hand"
Exception: If the above ... has "two" or "three" in it for any of them.
Note the requirement for the word land to be plural.

"lands don't untap"
"Players can't play lands"
Exception: If the card is instant or sorcery.

"each player ... chooses ... land(s) ... sacrifices the rest."

"return all lands to their owners' hands"

All instances of the word "land" dictated as a requirement in the strings above can be swapped for "permanent".

"Whenever a player .... that player returns a land they control to its owner's hand."

"lands are (land subtype)."

All instances of the word land dictated as a requirement in all the strings above can be swapped with "nonbasic land", "Plains", "Forest", "Island", "Mountain" or "Swamp".
All instances of the word "sacrifice" can be swapped for "destroy" or "exile".
All instaces of the word "player" can be swapped for "opponent".

A global expection for all Mass Land Denial is made if "nonland" is ever in the textbox.
Individual cards bypass exceptions.

Individual cards: Desolation, Equipoise, Hall of Gemstone, Mana Vortex, Mist of Stagnation, Parallax Tide, Pox, Quicksilver Fountain, Sands of Time, Smokestack, Storm Cauldron, Tangle Wire, Temporal Distortion, Thoughts of Ruin, Words of Wind, World Queller

Femme_Fatale on Commander bracket recommendation

3 weeks ago

Anything anyone thinks is missing with this?

Tutor:

"Search your library for ... card"
Exception: Tutors that, within the above string, have the words basic, Plains, Forest, Island, Mountain or Swamp.

This should catch instances of multiple cards being tutored.

Individual cards: Demonic Consultation, Divining Witch, Tunnel Vision

Mass Land Denial:

"Destroy/Exile ... lands"
"Each player/opponent sacrifices ... lands"
"Return ... lands to their owner's hand"
Exception: If the above ... is "two" or "three" for any of them.
Note the requirement for the word land to be plural.

"Each player/opponent ... chooses ... land(s) ... sacrifices/destroys/exiles the rest."

"Return all lands/permanents to their owners' hands."

"Whenever a player .... that player returns a land they control to its owner's hand."

"lands don't untap"
"Players can't play lands"
Exception: If the card is instant or sorcery.

All instances of the word land dictated as a requirement in these strings can be swapped with "nonbasic land", "Plains", "Forest", "Island", "Mountain" or "Swamp".
All instances of the word land/lands must not be nonland.

Individual cards: Blood Moon, Desolation, Equipoise, Hall of Gemstone, Mana Vortex, Mist of Stagnation, Parallax Tide, Sands of Time, Storm Cauldron, Tangle Wire, Temporal Distortion, Thoughts of Ruin

edit: quietly adds "Hall of Gemstones" as a synonym to Hall of Gemstone

BlondieN8 on The $7K solution to having friends GAAIV Primer

1 month ago

Wonderful deck!

Some more haters could be Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Winter Moon, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, or Dissipation Field. Just some thoughts for sideswaps and/or cards to swap into your deck.

To maybe counter Mana Vortex one could sideboard Land Tax.

RiotRunner789 on I wanna be the evil …

8 months ago

Stax is the most outrageous villian and azorius (Blue/White) loves stax.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV or Lavinia, Azorius Renegade with effects like Mana Vortex, Winter Orb, Rest in Peace, Peacekeeper, Meekstone, and Armageddon will keep everyone begging for resources.

Or you could play Urza, Lord High Artificer and be the only one not affected by Static Orb.

DreadKhan on My nadu

9 months ago

I have no idea if you want random input on this, so ignore this if you don't!

It might clog up your mana base, but you could sneak a few more creatures by throwing in a couple man-lands to replace other lands. With Nadu you'd put them directly into play, and even if they ETB tapped they can still become a creature and be targeted. There are a few that only use 1 mana to transform (such as Mishra's Factory and Inkmoth Nexus/Blinkmoth Nexus), but a few that turn on for 2 mana exist as well (Treetop Village, Faerie Conclave, Lair of the Hydra, and Mishra's Foundry), I feel like with all your 'free mana whenever a land ETBs' effects you'll easily be able to use them when you need them. The ETB tapped ones are worse (but usually offer colored mana), but as noted you'll usually see a given land when you're using Nadu (because you go through so many more cards with Nadu than you draw normally), so all that matters is they are creatures too, when I was testing this the issue was running out of creatures and not being able to continue, I often had gobs of mana I had no real use for (I will say the deck can easily hold up a hand full of interaction after using Nadu, even if you don't truly 'go off'). I took a quick look at your land list, and if I wanted to pull a couple lands I think Talon Gates of Madara has low synergy, I'd also consider Nesting Grounds, and since you have a few removal spells you might even switch out Homeward Path, depending on how theft-heavy your meta is.

Since you can generate a fair bit of mana in this deck when you're going off (and playing it for 4 or 5 mana in a slow game could also be a solid play) I think Awaken the Woods might do work in here.

It's pretty minor, but Whir of Invention costs one more (but has improvise fwiw), it doesn't require you to have an existing Artifact out, and it's an Instant so you can use it on an opponent's end step to get your Shuko out so you can go off on your turn. I think this is more than you can do with Reshape, ymmv.

It's a niche use, but if you switch out Amphibian Downpour (a card I legit love btw) for Curse of the Swine you'd have the option of targeting all of your disposable creatures and replacing them with brand spanking new piggies! These can be targeted anew, meaning if you draw into it at the right time it should win the game. It can also be used aggressively to excellent effect (and can do both at the same time), it sucks that it's a Sorcery though!

This is really splitting hairs a bit, but with your Commander I wonder if good old Sunder might be better at doing what Mana Vortex does? Sunder's an Instant (so you can play it on an opponent's endstep), and as long as you've already got Nadu and a free equip out you'll be fine on your turn, but it's also a much worse Blue Silence effect you can use during your combo to make it much harder to interact with you, and you just keep digging out new lands so it's all good? I love Mana Vortex and think it's doing a different enough thing that both could be fun. You could also try out Winter Orb and Static Orb if you're feeling, well, 'orbsy', both make it much harder to use lands, and you get to cheat a ton in untapped if all is going well.

Hope your testing is going well!

Oh, it looks like you have 99 cards, what a lovely problem to have!

RiotRunner789 on All the combos

10 months ago

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite or Zealous Conscripts for infinite attackers. Also. Kiki can copy other combo pieces and each piece is useful on its own.

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden + Timestream Navigator + Ascend and at least 6 mana for infinite turns.

Stranglehold + Maralen of the Mornsong locks opponents out of card draw and tutoring. Maralen can also tutor for the other piece or other combo piece but opponents will probably tutor for answers.

Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle for instant win. Demonic can also just be used to grab another combo piece.

Smothering Tithe + Stasis for a lockout.

Teferi's Protection or some indestructible spell + Jokulhaups for a hard opponent reset. Teferi and Apocalypse or some other degenerate red board wipe also works.

Mana Vortex or some other land destruction like Armageddon + ability to play lands from grave like Crucible of Worlds for a combo people will hate you for.

There are a million combos, so it's probably best to pick ones that work with your commander or contain pieces that work on their own. Or, at least have a few defensive pieces (board wipes, stax, Propaganda, counters, etc.) to hold off your opponents.

RiotRunner789 on Favorite EDH Cards

1 year ago

My favorite card is Grave Pact but that isn't quite niche. I don't seem to have as many oddball fun cards that I tend to play but there are a few oddball or less played ones at least.

Black: Koskun Falls is a favorite of mine. I prefer decks that do not attack, so the tapping is not a big downside. Tainted Remedy because it makes opponent's creatures with lifelink funny. Gift of Doom which doesn't use the stack when morphing which has come in handy more than once. Pestilence is one of my favorite black board wipes which typically is on my board with an indestructible creature. Dystopia since at least someone is playing Selesnya.

White: Peacekeeper because no means no. Aura of Silence use to be more niche but has seen some prominent reprints. Solid removal with a tax effect has tripped up more than one opponent. Mandate of Peace is a great fog and a counter spell in some situations. Underplayed.

Green: Hall of Gemstone for any monogreen deck. Had a blue player try to win on my endstep and about 5 minutes into their combo, I asked where there blue mana was coming from.

Orzhov: Batwing Brume has killed a few Kranko players for me and saved me several times.

Colorless: Null Brooch is just Isochron Scepter with Negate already attached. Arena of the Ancients is great for when my commander doesn't need to tap, or attack, or is played after this and has vigilance. Great card no one expects.

Red: Apocalypse or Jokulhaups for the hard reset. Stranglehold because blue players are the worst and tutoring takes too long.

Blue: Mana Vortex for the slow decent into hell.

scottbaker91 on Zur the Enchanter Stax

1 year ago

Some of my favorite Zur Combos are: Teferi, Hero of Dominaria + Stasis // Solitary Confinement + Necropotence // Rest in Peace + Energy Field // Stasis + Azor's Elocutors // Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact // Winter Orb + Mind Over Matter

Sunder, Armageddon, Death Cloud will send your opponents back to the stone age while you fish out more enchants and punch them to death with Zur

Mana Breach, Mana Vortex, Oppression, Overburden are must have stax cards for Zur. The enchantments / creatures that keep your opponents from drawing or casting more than 1 spell per turn are really solid for stax ex: Arcane Laboratory, Spirit of the Labyrinth. Notion Thief + wheels will leave your opponent with 0 cards

Spellskite, Vanishing, Diplomatic Immunity, Steel of the Godhead, Mind Over Matter are all S tier for Zur

Approach of the Second Sun for another easy win con

Have fun crushing your opponents soul