Mox Diamond

Artifact

If Mox Diamond would enter the battlefield, you may discard a land card instead. If you do, put Mox Diamond onto the battlefield. If you don't, put it into its owner's graveyard.

: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

Discussion (51)

Apotheosis616 on Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. in testing for cEDH

4 days ago

Ethan2003,

Hey friend, just popping in at your request.

In order to make a strong cEDH deck you need to remember a few things when you are building the deck and evaluating a commander.

1. Is the commander cheap to cast? (also known as being "castable"). This means the commander needs to be a lower cmc, lower than 4 is generally preferred for these scenarios. the cheaper the commander the earlier you can cast it and win or accrue value.

2. How many colors is the commander (more colors = better card quality as you have more cards to choose from)?

3. Does your commander do something special? (can it get you a ton of cards, does it have any one-card combos, does it disrupt opponents, etc).

It is very important to remember that comp is all about speed and castability. When you look at comp decks the overall CMC of the deck is generally less than 2, in most cases, it will be much lower than 2. Your deck is sitting at 3.29, much much too high.

Most decks are trying to win between turns 2-4 with slower decks trying to win turns 5-7. This means you don't have much time to ramp up and you need cheaper cards to interact with your opponents and have powerful effects. Competitive is all about greed-ing for that low CMC. The cheaper the spell, the easier it is to cast, the easier it is to cast, the more often it will be useful.

For example, viable comp commanders offer something very valuable in the command zone, either card advantage, card selection, a mechanic that can cheat things into play, it is a combo enabler, it is the combo finisher, etc. Obviously, each card will be judged on a case by case basis where you evaluate what it has to bring to the table over something else that is similar to it.

Here, the commander is a combo piece that also allows you to deal incremental damage. In competitive environments, people use their life totals as resources since decks are trying to win way before any creatures could do enough damage to kill you. for this reason, most decks are not combat orientated, and if they are, it is a combo that leads to victory, not pure continual combat damage.

With that initial info out of the way, we can look at how to make the deck faster and more consistent.

In comp environments, there are the 4 powerful artifacts that are included in almost every. You need a reason not to include the cards, otherwise by default they will be included. These artifacts are: Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, and Sol Ring. Lotus Petal and Mana Vault are often included as well but are not as powerful. You need these cheap accelerants to power your deck in the early stages.

Consistency is key. In order to have a viable comp deck, your deck needs to be consistently performing well. In order to accomplish this goal, you need to have a high density of tutors and ways to reach/set-up your combo (or prevent others from reaching theirs).

CRUNCDAT on Mishra Stax Eggs ($800)

2 weeks ago

Hey mindcrank! Thank you so much for the comment! Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, I just saw it today. So the big thing with upgrading this list with no budget concessions is the quality of the eggs. Mox Diamond, Mox Opal, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt and Grim Monolith are all mana positive rocks which will make storming off easier. They can replace some of the weaker rocks in the list. If you want to include more answers with stuff like Force of Will and Cyclonic Rift the big thing is to consider removing Blood Funnel. While it's amazing for trying to go off with artifacts, it locks you out of playing almost anything but them. Ad Nauseam would be pretty helpful, especially if you've gotten some mileage out of Aetherflux Reservoir. Underworld Breach would be pretty strong once you've played and sacrificed a lot of rocks, and it would make Lion's Eye Diamond viable in the build.

That's about all I can think of right now. Hope your build goes well!

ShadowAblaze on Aura You Ready?!

2 weeks ago

Given that you are playtesting this deck against other cEDH decks, I am going to assumer you are also building a cEDH style deck. This is sort of hard to do on a budget and will cost a pretty penny. I only am wary because your deck is only ~$400 right now. I am not a cEDH player but I do understand enough to make these suggestions...

For a cEDH build you want low 30's in lands. For example, some you would want right now: Gaea's Cradle, City of Brass, Mana Confluence, the fetch lands, and the shock lands. Almost no land can enter tapped in competitive (take out the temples). The ramp would include some rocks but also mana dorks because they synergise well with the Cradle. Examples of ramp: Arbor Elf (really good for enchanted forests), Llanowar Elves/Elvish Mystic, Noble Hierarch/Birds of Paradise, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Carpet of Flowers (this works because in multiplayer one player almost always is in blue and it is also an enchantment!), Chrome Mox, and Mox Diamond.

Two Bant cEDH decks on tapped out that I would look at for examples are The Bant Hammer [cEDH] and Estrid Stax cEDH. The Rafiq deck is very similar to yours and you could probably use from cards from that list.

If you aren't planning on cEDH, ramp is much more forgiving since games last longer more often. In that case I like creatures like Wood Elves, Yavimaya Dryad, Viridian Emissary, and Sakura-Tribe Elder because land destruction isn't as common and lands usually survive board wipes.

I hope this is more helpful!

SynergyBuild on What cards deserve to be ...

2 weeks ago

Many players wished Flash to be banned well before it was, are there any other cards that any of you think deserve to be banned? For their ubiquity, I've heard Cyclonic Rift, Sol Ring, and Command Tower even, however more often, I heard of cards like Armageddon, Winter Orb or other hate-stax pieces after a game they took over being bannable.

From commanders you believe are unbalanced (I've heard Urza), cards that were too pushed for the format (I've heard Oko, Thief of Crowns), or even cards that are different given the EDH rules (such as Serra Ascendant/Seedborn Muse), or other overpowered or expensive cards (like Mox Diamond or Mana Crypt), what should be banned if you had the opportunity?

I will follow this up later on with unbans as well, so you can comment your thoughts on that later!

SynergyBuild on What are the best cards ...

3 weeks ago

There are many cards and decks for EDH.

I wanted to ask you all what you thought were some of the best for a variety of categories. (Also add your favorites or reasonings as you please!)

The first of these categories would be commanders, obviously, but I address that here: What is the best commander deck and why?

Now onto other categories of cards:

1. Ramp spells: Often Sol Ring would fit here, but Mana Crypt is often better, however with Bloom Tender, Birds of Paradise, Deathrite Shaman, Mox Diamond, and plenty different cards like rituals, dorks and rocks, what do you consider the best?

2. Card draw: Both card draw engines like Oakhame Adversary and Rhystic Study as well as One-time big draws like Wheel of Fortune or Ad Nauseam would count, what is the best in your opinion?

3. Lands: Often fetchlands, Command Tower and duals are considered the best, but with so many utility lands there are tons more!

4. Wincons: Not just combos, however Demonic Consultation&Thassa's Oracle is amazing, but Craterhoof Behemoth like in Yisan decks or Tendershoot Dryad, even Expropriate etc, what wins games for you, what do you think is the best one?

5. Spot Removal/Interaction: Counterspells like Mana Drain, Force of Will, removal like Swords to Plowshares, Abrupt Decay, Nature's Claim, Song of the Dryads or Grasp of Fate all apply, what's the best in your opinion?

6. Board Wipes: Cyclonic Rift is sure incredible, but is it the best? Toxic Deluge, Fire Covenant, Supreme Verdict and tons more are great too, what do you think is the best?

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If you have any other cards that don't fit these categories, however you find are some of the best cards for EDH, please, tell me below, thanks so much!

Apotheosis616 on Alela Stax cEDH Brew

1 month ago

This is list lacks the raw power from free artifacts like Mana Crypt Mox Diamond and friends that power your aether flux storm wins. Otherwise, it is on the right track.

Spirits on Arahbo Orphanguard Infect Beats

1 month ago

Hi Knixx,

Gaea's Cradle + Finale of Devastation is a good finish with Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest and it gives the creature it pulls in haste. If you pull in Regal Caracal, it gives you 1 attacker for each player that they have to deal with or lose the game (and you lifelink too)

Based on this, I would run Crop Rotation instead of Wild Growth (I would if i owned a Gaea's Cradle) and an Expedition Map instead of Leafkin Druid. The Expedition Map also increases your Mox Opal hypergeometric probability. Don't forget they both also pull Inkmoth Nexus into play if you draw the Gaea's Cradle or need to refuel infect to eliminate an opponent.

Day of Judgment seems wrong, Wrath of God is same but just better, Terminus has the advantage of getting rid of indestructible and a potential cost. I usually just use the swords to get protection, if you clear the board, and then play a Lost Leonin it becomes a sole creature threat for removal.

I see Presence of Gond in the maybeboard, assuming thinking of pairing it with Midnight Guard to make infinite 1/1 elf creatures? It's not bad, but Line 1) Infect T2/T3, 2) Infinite Squirrel, not sure you need a 3) Infinite Elf (but really fun). Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond is easier to tutor than Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft as well because 1 is a creature (unfortunately not a creature for Green Sun's Zenith). Also the creatures are untapped in this combo, vs. tapped Squirrels so a Concordant Crossroads can be a win, could be your potential line 3 for CMC6.

I've personally been avoiding non-T1 lands, if the game is only T4 (or less), Reflecting Pool and Sunpetal Grove going to hurt me in the long run. Luckily they both T2 lands so they aren't that bad, I really like Reflecting Pool too, so can't hate on either of those. The only exception I make is Hall of the Bandit Lord, the way I justify it, is Concordant Crossroads is , where Hall of the Bandit Lord costs to play but maintains 1 card advantage lol. It's a tough justification, but I think it's needed for the early infect multiplier, assuming I T1 Hall of the Bandit Lord.

I like Bronzehide Lion and Snake Umbra going a protection model for your Lost Leonin. With Bronzehide Lion, keeping the open incase they want to remove a vanilla 3/3 (6/6 with Arahbo so he can put a timer/pressure on a player or cause them to defend instead of tutoring a win) just seems wrong though. Snake Umbra might not work, because most removal in Commander is exile not destroy, but the draw is ok. If it was or and recurred like Rancor I would like it, at CMC3 it's just too slow for me and doesn't give the right protection (hexproof).

I mean the deck should work solid, I know how consistent my T2/T3 infect can be, and I can recover in mid-game with swords or combo out, if the game continues. None of our combos are Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation or Omniscience + Enter the Infinite, but we can infect those players who don't engage blockers early.

Your advantage is that Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft is CMC5 whereas my Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista is CMC9 (yuck). My advantage is I can tutor my pieces a little easier. I really like the deck.

At 20 AF's your 20% to T1 use a Mox Opal, your at 16 T1 playable now (excluding exo and swords but adding inkmoth). Expedition Map seems critical. Wish I had a Mox Diamond too. At 20 AF, <=3 AF is 95%.

Could use a Tooth and Nail as a finisher similar to Finale of Devastation since we can't tutor it, wouldn't take too much to build a combo for that. Academy Rector possibly could be a win, but we dont have Omniscience or Sac outlets lol.

There is a new Beast Within Generous Gift.

How have you found Pride Sovereign? I could never get it to work fast enough to be of value. PS Spike Feeder is awful lol, life does nothing for me, and the only way to kill with infinite life is AF which is impossible to tutor in Selesnya lol.

Keep up the research following the deck now, see if we can continue to innovate, and with an initiative to strengthen in all formats, maybe we'll get something useful. With Rin and Seri, Inseparable, I'm assuming there may be some more GOOD playable cats to pump us up!

MosiacMessenger on Winota Cedh

1 month ago

There are 2 cards I would consider adding or at least worth thinking about:

Sevinne's Reclamation - Sees some cEDH play already and with good reason.

Treasure Nabber - Bit of spicy tech here but can really ramp you with all the fast mana at a normal cEDH table. Also comes down before Winota and can trigger her ability (being a non-human creature).

Other considerations would be the normal cEDH fast mana. Namely:

Arcane Signet - Chrome Mox - Grim Monolith - Lotus Petal - Mox Diamond - Mox Opal

Keep up the good work!