Norn's Annex
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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

Norn's Annex

Artifact

( can be paid with either or 2 life.)

Creatures can't attack you or a planeswalker you control unless their controller pays for each of those creatures.

legendofa on Help me torture

2 months ago

Hand = hurting: Black Vise, Ebony Owl Netsuke, Iron Maiden, Misers' Cage, Sword of War and Peace

Bounce: Blood Clock, Crystal Shard, Surgical Skullbomb, Umbilicus

Standard stax/tax effects: Smokestack, Tangle Wire, Winter Orb, Thorn of Amethyst, God-Pharaoh's Statue, Damping Sphere, Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance, Cursed Totem, Static Orb, Meekstone, Norn's Annex, Mindlock Orb

Artifact creatures with these effects: Viseling, Neurok Replica, Esper Sentinel

Pulled mostly from EDHrec, and I only hit the highlights. https://edhrec.com/themes/stax

onua1 on The Beautiful Lxhel

2 months ago

Consider cutting: Green Sun's Twilight, Expand the Sphere, Feed the Infection, Venomous Brutalizer , Myr Convert, Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold, Carrion Call, Phyrexian Atlas, Vat of Rebirth, Norn's Annex, Necroblossom Snarl, Shineshadow Snarl, Fortified Village.

Kron on Your Opponents Compleated

3 months ago

Massive round of updates (probably some both added and removed in the same update but it's down to 100 now XD)

Added:

Removed:

slasherturtle on Equip Me Daddy

3 months ago

This will be long, probably.

The first thing I notice is your land base. It's pretty important for this deck to reliably get Jor out on turn 2 consistently, and you may be a bit short on lands for that. To that point, you also want to limit lands that tap for colorless or enter tapped to only the ones you absolutely need. While the lands that tap for both and enter tapped (like Alpine Meadow or Sacred Peaks) are nice for fixing, they are slow and ultimately it's up to you whether to run those or not. The biggest one that pokes out to me is Reliquary Tower. Not only does it only tap for colorless, I'm also not sure you're going to be drawing enough cards for it to be any better than a basic Plains or Mountain. I'd keep an eye out for Slayers' Stronghold and Sandstone Bridge in playtesting, depending on how often they go off they might also be worse than a basic. All in all though, land base is pretty good, you just need more. Maybe 2-3 more of each basic to get started and tweak from there.

I really like the amount of nonland cards that grab you lands you have (like Wayfarer's Bauble and Navigation Orb). They're better than Evolving Wilds and cheaper than fetch lands, but if you ever do get the chance to pack some fetches in here, I think you could take one or two of those out and replace them with some more equipment or creatures that like them. You can also never go wrong with adding a Solemn Simulacrum.

I really like almost all of your nonland cards and can think of very few cards I'd want to swap for better alternatives, but I think some are pretty safe cuts if you're trying to trim down to 100 cards.

  • Some of your Living Weapon cards are really expensive and don't do much other than make an equipped creature, but their cost is so high that you should already have enough to trigger Jor by the time you can even cast them. Others just feel like they won't impact the board enough to warrant a spot in the 99. The ones that stick out to me are:

  • Mortarpod, which takes up a 2 drop spot and conflicts with casting Jor

  • Sickleslicer, which just feels a bit underwhelming
  • Skinwing, which feels exceptionally steeply priced, even for an equipment that grants flying

  • Strandwalker, which is also very steep

  • There are also some cards which I think either hurt more than they help or don't do you much at all:

  • Prophetic Prism doesn't offer you any ramp and takes up a 2-drop spot. As someone with a 2-drop commander, you want to minimize the amount of other 2CMC cards in the deck because they get really awkward, especially in the first four turns. Turn two you're forced to choose between playing your 2-drop and your commander, and then turn 3 you have to decide between whichever you didn't choose and whatever good 3-drops you may have access to. It fucks up your whole curve.

  • Shuko equips for free but basically does nothing else after that. The same is true for Leather Armor. It may or may not be worth it, up to you.
  • Invulnerability may be slightly overcosted with buyback and you may be better running retroactive protection like Norn's Annex or Ghostly Prison.
  • Keen-Eared Sentry may not do as much as it seems. Having Hexproof is nice and makes you feel safe, but I ran Aegis of the Gods in Azor for years and it almost never saved me from anything, not only because having hexproof isn't as strong as it seems but also because people will want to kill it very quickly if they do need to target you.
  • I love the amount of repeatable combat effects in this deck, but they are worse than nothing if you don't have a board state that can take advantage of it. Some of those slots may be better used on other equipment or cards that care about them. If I were to cut any, it'd probably be Relentless Assault because it's not repeatable like Akki Battle Squad, Aurelia, and Waves of Aggression. This may also apply to Response / Resurgence since you can't fetch it with Sunforger and it's other half isn't super great.
  • As wonderful as Lightning Greaves is for commander protection, it also prevents you from being able to attach any more auras or equipment to whichever creature it's attached to due to Shroud and I tend to not recommend it in Voltron decks. It's also a 2-drop. That one is just personal choice though.
  • You may have one or two too many cards that reduce the cost of your artifacts. Yours are all so cheap and you may find yourself better off having something that draws you cards or cares about equipment than a card that only helps if you're trying to cast expensive artifacts. Since it's easy to kill and doesn't do much else, Starnheim Courser may at least be worth a cut, if not also Jhoira's Familiar due to mana cost alone.
  • Quietus Spike and Scytheclaw have the same effect, which also isn't good enough to win the game on it's own since the damage cut happens after you deal damage, meaning you can literally never kill someone off of that trigger alone unless you leave them with exactly one life. Since Scytheclaw at least has Living Weapon, you may want to consider cutting Quietus Spike.
  • Sword of Feast and Famine is good, but it isn't insane. If you don't already have one it's probably not worth spending 50 bucks on.
  • The Ward you get from Amulet of Safekeeping in your Maybeboard might not be worth making all of your living weapon and Assemble the Legion tokens weaker.
  • I love Assemble the Legion so much. It is one of my favorite cards in Magic. It may be my favorite enchantment period. It is also balls ass slow, expensive to cast, and doesn't synergize with your strategy. That one is up to you. I'd run it just because I like it, but it'd be the first card I cut if I needed to trim some fat.
  • Mask of Immolation gives you an equipped creature, but it doesn't do much else for 2 mana. If it equipped for free it'd be different, but it's equip cost isn't cheap given how weak it's effect is. It's also a 2 drop.
  • Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith is much better when you can throw his rocks, which you don't want to do in this deck because you want to keep them attached to things for Jor - meaning you're spending three mana for a guy who gives you one equipment that does nothing a turn.
  • Leonin Shikari isn't something I'd say you should take out immediately, but you should keep an eye on it during playtesting. If you find you aren't taking advantage of her ability enough, cut her and replace her with something that isn't a 2-drop.
  • Wrath of God may be better than Vanquish the Horde. That's just my opinion though.

All in all, what you keep and what you cut is up to you, this is just what sticks out to me personally. The closer you get to 100, the better. If you're able to cut it down to at least 104 or 105, try just playing without 4 or 5 of the cards you aren't sure about and playtest from there, then use those 4 or 5 as your maybeboard. Also this deck is really cool and I like it a lot.

hootsnag on Oloro White Blue Black Creatureless Control

5 months ago

Glad you enjoy seeing the decks I make. I will answer your questions and give some insight into my decision making. First, I considered Expedition Map a long time ago and decided to go with more normal tutor cards such as Demonic Tutor etc. The map only grabs a land so it is limited in use. Mindslaver is one of those cards that can definitely cause all kinds of chaos but I chose to go for a faster win condition and less of cards like this. It takes too long to set up and get going. Lethal Vapors isn't a card I would run honestly. I would prefer a card like Spreading Plague or The Abyss instead. I chose exile as my main removal in this deck. Doing so counters graveyard strategies somewhat and indestructible. As for Static Orb and Winter Orb, these also interfere with my own win conditions. I'm trying to cast Approach of the Second Sun as fast as possible. This deck is very much control based and not really built to be a stax deck. Lastly, I've been asked before about why I don't run Yawgmoth's Will. I just don't think this particular deck is built to get value from it. It's an amazing card but I just didn't build this deck to support using such a card. Honestly, it would be more of a filler card for me.

Now, for the next set of questions. You are correct when you say that someone can still play one creature with Ward of Bones in play. The idea is to stop people from flooding the board with more than one. It is just a card to stall my opponents until I can draw or tutor my win conditions. This is the same reason why I use Portcullis. It keeps more than two creatures from being on the battlefield. Any creatures played on the battlefield beyond two get exiled until Portcullis leaves the battlefield. Again, I'm just slowing down and stalling my opponents so I can tutor or draw my win conditions. I feel that any creatureless deck should always run Portcullis. The value is just too insane. Energy Field is a card that I use to stall as well. It may last a couple of turns and that may be just enough to survive and tutor/cast my win condition. Null Brooch is such a fantastic card. A colorless artifact ability that just counters a non-creature spell is insane. It also combos crazy good with Ensnaring Bridge so that no creatures can attack because you have zero cards in hand. Witchbane Orb is just nice to have. It prevents a lot of bad things targeting you. It comes in handy more than you realize. You can't die to Grapeshot or other things with it in play. Norn's Annex forces people into a bad decision. They either pay white mana, lose life, or they can't attack you at all. Also, because of the Phyrexian Mana cost, you can play this fast to get value out of it quicker. Remember, if you make someone lose at least 8-10 life just to attack you, they are more vulnerable to other players killing them. The only other card I would put in place of this is No Mercy. Lastly, Mox Tantalite and Lotus Bloom are great for this deck. If I play them early enough, they allow me to cast Approach of the Second Sun very fast. Also, both suspend cards synergize with Tolaria West. Since the cards have a mana value of zero, you can use transmute from Tolaria West to search for them. I hope that shows you some of my reasoning and decision making. If you need to know anything further, feel free to ask.

AstroAA on Bant enchantmentz

6 months ago

From here, most of my suggestions are towards just making your deck more efficient and better equipped to deal with potential threats.

Yeah, as shadow63 said, you don't have nearly enough ramp. Personally, I would cut Ormos, Archive Keeper, Nyxbloom Ancient, Dragonlord Dromoka, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope right off the bat and replace them with the likes of Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Noble Hierarch, and maybe even Sylvan Caryatid. If you wanted to keep a similar effect to Dragonlord Dromoka, I'd advise running Grand Abolisher instead as it's much cheaper CMC-wise.

In addition, I'd completely redo your mana base. I'd recommend things like Command Tower, Mana Confluence, City of Brass, Reflecting Pool, the three shocklands in bant colors, and at least the three fetch lands in bant colors. These would make your deck much more consistent. I'd also work to add in more spot removal like Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Generous Gift, and Beast Within.

You can also cut stuff like Decree of Silence for cheaper yet similar options. Glen Elendra Archmage is a good and cheaper alternative that does something kind of similar. For Force Bubble you could potentially get away with running Elephant Grass instead. Instead of Sandwurm Convergence you could run something like Norn's Annex. Instead of Open the Vaults you can run Replenish.

TheWiseDragon43 on Five Color Planeswalkers

7 months ago

SufferFromEDHD thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately Mox Amber and The Chain Veil are both quite far out of my price range, as are Luxior, Giada's Gift and Norn's Annex to a lesser extent. I’ll definitely consider Honor-Worn Shaku and Rings of Brighthearth though.

SufferFromEDHD on Five Color Planeswalkers

7 months ago

Honor-Worn Shaku turns planeswalkers into mana rocks

Luxior, Giada's Gift turns planeswalkers into dudes

Mox Amber possibly in place of BoP

Norn's Annex the best pillow fort effect for the theme

Rings of Brighthearth double loyalty triggers

The Chain Veil double loyalty triggers

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