Maze of Ith

Land

: Untap target attacking creature. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that creature this turn.

Discussion (51)

DuTogira on Deciding between two Orzhov Commanders

1 day ago

I'm gonna go to bat for my girl Vona, Butcher of Magan here.
Let's look at the different scenarios that Karlov of the Ghost Council and Vona, Butcher of Magan do well in.
Karlov of the Ghost Council needs you to have either soul sisters or some incremental life-gain enchantments. Basically, 3+ supporting pieces on the board in order to really get off the ground. If you don't have that, Karlov is a 2/2. That's a REALLY low floor. The ceiling of Karlov is an absolute monster of a creature, which can also exile other creatures in exchange for shrinking down.
Vona, Butcher of Magan works well when you can keep her alive. Cards like Lightning Greaves and Sword of Fire and Ice are fantastic on her. If you can keep her alive, the floor is that you get one Anguished Unmaking per turn, destroying instead of exiling. That's a pretty high floor. The ceiling of vona is that you combine her with cards like Sword of Fire and Ice and maybe a Maze of Ith (you can Maze of Ith + combat jank to get multiple vona activations off in one turn), allowing you to either remove more stuff, or hurt yourself less while activating. The ceiling on vona isn't much higher than the floor, but based on how high the floor is, that's not such a bad thing.

Now let's look at the decks you build around each.
Karlov of the Ghost Council lends himself to an orzhov soul sisters deck. Plain and simple.
Vona, Butcher of Magan is far more nuanced. If you try to build a lifegain deck around her, she'll be largely underwhelming, as she actually fuels MOST of her own activations. If you're low on life, she can bring you back up herself. Seriously, don't underestimate how much life you can gain from a creature with lifelink and vigilance. You also should not build pure voltron for vona, because she incentivizes you to activate her (meaning you can't block with her). Vona works best in a hybrid stax/battlecruiser deck, keeping your opponents choked on resources. This allows vona to clean up the few resources they have, and means that you can use the 1-3 creatures on your board (one of which being vona) to grind your opponents into the dust.

When you build each commander CORRECTLY, they're both extremely powerful. Honestly, I prefer Vona. She's waaaay more fun. The downside is that, because so many people like to build her as vampire tribal or as lifegain, you run into very bad suggestions for card additions almost non-stop, especially from EDHREC.

As I said, I HIGHLY recommend vona. You can find my build here, if you ever need inspiration: No Pain No Gain

Epidilius on MagicalHacker - List of All Optimum Ramp

4 days ago

A rebuttal to your arguments against Mana Crypt: it costs 0 mana. That means you don't have to play it T1. If you have a sweet 4 mana play that will have a large presence on the board (say, Teferi, Master of Time), just hold it in hand until T2. You don't pull aggression from other players until you would anyway (in this case, from Teferi, Master of Time) and you don't start losing coin flips early. As for Mana Vault, it lets me play a 5 drop T2, and Vault with any T1 ramp that can immediately tap for mana can give you a 6 drop T2. If Sol Ring + Mana Vault lets me win the game on T2, then that is pretty good ramp. Having to pay to untap doesn't matter at all when there are so many ways to untap it for free.

Also, once you start bringing in personal experience, arguments kind of lose all meaning. I play a lot of mono or dual coloured decks, and I run Maze of Ith in pretty much all of them (also a respectable amount of artifact and land wipes). Unless your creature has hexproof and pro my colours, it will never connect. Between board wipes and spot removal, you would be better off playing Llanowar Elves, since you can run so many effective copies of it (eg, Elvish Mystic, Birds of Paradise, etc).

Also also, one of your stated rules is "Creature cards needing to attack". Does a Sword not break that rule, since it requires a creature to both attack and connect? At least Sword of the Animist just needs the attack trigger.

My personal opinion is that the most impactful plays are 4-6 mana. Being able to reach 4 mana on T2 and 6 mana on T3 should be a qualifier for "Most Optimum Ramp". I would rename this list to "Useful Ramp Cards". I do think this is a useful list, but I don't think it is a list of the best ramp, which the title claims it is.

About your last point, could you share that research?

Omniscience_is_life on What is your favorite gameplay ...

1 week ago

Please, if you’re playing casual, keep the land destruction to a minimum. It’s a feel bad if you’re mana screwed, but it’s even worse if you HAD enough land, but they were blown up. (Obviously get rid of a singular Maze of Ith if it’s completely messing you up, but don’t just get destroy a player’s only green source just to cripple them)

Epicurus on Zur the Oppressive A**hole

1 week ago

+1, if only for the name alone.

One lockdown card you're missing is Sphere of Safety. It costs too much to fetch it with Zur, but with all the tutoring you'll be doing it will continuously raise the percentage that you draw it.

Furthermore, this looks like a quasi-voltron deck, with Zur playing the lead. As such, the most underrated card for voltron, in my opinion, is Silent Arbiter. Especially if you pair that with Maze of Ith.

And finally, there's no mention of Alela, Artful Provocateur. Not sure if she fits the scheme, or how so, but maybe alt wincon? I don't know, I just feel like she's always at least worth bringing up in any Esper enchantment deck, even if just to explain why she was omitted.

Have fun!

SuperNorst420 on Andrea's Dog Deck

2 weeks ago

Heya Dude. For upgrades, I recommend Craterhoof Behemoth, Finale of Devastation, Exploration, Doubling Season, Path to Exile, the three Ravinca Shocklands, the the checklands in you colors, a Maze of Ith, a Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip, and a Worldly Tutor.

Epicurus on Palladia Win-Mors

3 weeks ago

Lol'd at the name. Love me some voltron.

My favorite defensive cards for voltron are Silent Arbiter and Dueling Grounds. In addition to slowing down wider decks, they make your voltron unblockable if it has menace, and completely lock out opponent's attackers if you have Maze of Ith.

Cheers!

Capntallon on Naya Archer Tribal

3 weeks ago

Alright, so hear me out...

Argothian Elder works as a pretty great ramp engine with your commander. It also just so happens to go INFINITE with...

Maze of Ith! This land also can untap one of your archers mid combat to get in one final shot.

But great. Now you have infinite mana with the elder and the maze. What do you do with that mana? Why, use the greatest tool an archer could ask for:

Rocket Launcher.

Juicy_J82 on

1 month ago

This looks like it would be a ton of fun to pilot, and I agree that the commander's ability is awesome. In decks like this where the commander's attack ability matters, I will usually run Maze of Ith or Reconnaissance.

I think they help because you can use them offensively to protect Yennett and still get the triggered ability, or they can certainly be useful defensively barring hexproof or similar. Might be worth a look if you find any flex spots.