Once Upon a Time

Instant

If this spell is the first spell you've cast this game, you may cast this without paying this spell's mana cost.

Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

DreadKhan on Monster Feets

3 months ago

I think you should run more stuff like Lotus Petal or Elvish Spirit Guide, Legacy is an incredibly fast format, and a deck like this needs to be putting a threat on board turn 2 pretty reliably, Lands decks and Reanimator decks can both put similar (or even better in the case of Lands) creatures onto the board on or before turn 2.

To protect vs wipes you could try Heroic Intervention, it's pricey but once you've stuck a threat I feel like you need it to stay alive. Not of this World can help protect your big creature from targeted stuff fwiw, but that's neither wipes or counters!

Have you thought about something like Terastodon to deal with stuff like Ensnaring Bridge? If a Discard deck can stick their Bridge do you have any ways to deal with it? I'm not saying Discard is a prevalent deck, but it can also kill a Dark Depths before they go off with it fwiw. The nice perk of the card is if you blow up lands your opponent will have a hard time casting a wipe, while you might be able to make another large creature!

I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Once Upon a Time, I'd run it as a x4, having one in your opening hand is really, really good I've found in my elf list (which also uses a lot of mana dorks fwiw). Between Once and the plethora of 1 mana dorks I used I ended up going down to 16 lands, which I was pretty happy with in practice.

If you're TRULY desperate for ways to deal with counter magic you can try Null Brooch, I used it in an aggro list to stop wipes, but if you REALLY want to protect stuff that's already on board it can help. It's a terrible card vs rack decks, but that's why we have sideboards, right?

mrweaselman on Stompy Boys (EDH)

10 months ago

Since you're in green, you have some pretty good options for ramp for two mana. Oketra's Monument, Rhonas's Monument, Invasion of Ixalan  ^Flip and Thought Vessel seem to be the weakest. Three Visits, Nature's Lore, and Skyshroud Claim are all very solid options that are much harder to remove. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds can also make a ton of mana and draw you cards.

Cards that seem weaker:
Wayward Swordtooth: You only run 33 lands, I am not sure how often this is going to trigger. With a lower land count you have a lesser chance of having multiple lands in hand.
Akroma's Will: This may be overkill. A better option may be Return of the Wildspeaker because it can also draw you a lot of cards.
Bite Down and Ram Through: Requires you to have a creature of the board. Something either cheaper or more flexible like Swords to Plowshares or Touch the Spirit Realm can be beneficial.
Boros Charm: Unless you play in a token heavy meta, there may better options like Flawless Maneuver or Tyvar's Stand. Both can protect your commander the turn you get it out for cheap.
Virtue of Strength: This card does say basic land and you do only run 18 in the whole deck. Take a look at Mirari's Wake, or you could run Bala Ged Sanctuary  ^Flip and another ramp spell for basically the same slots.
Kinjalli's Caller, Knight of the Stampede, Marauding Raptor, Otepec Huntmaster, and Atzocan Seer: These cards are definitely thematic, but I'm not sure if they're all better than Delighted Halfling, Birds of Paradise, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Bloom Tender, and Sylvan Caryatid. Especially if you're only casting one big dinosaur a turn. Same for Commune with Dinosaurs < Once Upon a Time

nuperokaso on Trample Tribal

11 months ago

• Since you are playing Arbor Elf, Old-Growth Troll and Utopia Sprawl, you need to be 100% sure that you have Forest in your opening hand. You are now playing 12 Forests, which don't guarantee that. I would suggest that you go up to 16 at least.
• Aspect of Hydra is not a good card in your build. It works well only in a mono-green deck. Remove them. Ghor-Clan Rampager is a better pump and also a good creature with trample.
• Commune with Nature is a bad card. If you want a better alternative, play Once Upon a Time, but best would be to play none of it - it's only relevant in combo decks.
• Trample works well with Deathtouch, since you need to assign only 1 damage to each blocker and the rest to the player. Try 1 Bow of Nylea and 1 Basilisk Collar.
• Return to Nature is a situational card which may end up dead in your hand. Such cards are not to be played in main deck, only in sideboard.
• Don't play Thrill of Possibility. You don't have any synergy with it. Instead of spending 2 mana to get to cards you want, play cards you want.
• Colossal Rattlewurm is a 6/5 trample for 4 mana with some upsides. Play some 2 Ramunap Ruins instead of a Basic Mountain to support it.
• Explore is questionable. I suggest you remove them. Add extra Arbor Elf and you have one free slot.
• As was already mentioned, 1 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero should make it into the deck.

BotaNickill on Shadow Clone Jutsu

1 year ago

Upvote for the Venerated Rotpriest enthusiasm! I like the interaction with Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief for sure, and I have a playset of her just in case I go back to the darkside (blue), but I am mainly a Selesnya player and my Rotpriest deck builds have been geared that way. I have mostly been playing it on Arena, first in Historic, but now mainly in Timeless. (But I do have a modern vs as well). Access to Once Upon a Time has been nice for consistency, and I've been considering adding Channel for the possibility of castion out most of my hand onm T1 But White offers some noice options for removal, like Swords to Plowshares and Annex Sentry, there's also some great white targeted spells, Defiant Strike, Ephemerate, Gird for Battle, Gods Willing etc. I usually choose to mulligan until I get a rotpriest in my opening hand and at least a land or two and a protection spell. But keeping Rotty on the board is always a challenge as he has a giant target on his back. How has this all worked out for you in Simic with being able to copy the rotpriest?

DreadKhan on Funny Elves

2 years ago

I found Once Upon a Time really useful in my Elves deck, really smoothe

Is Ezuri, Renegade Leader x1 too off theme? I feel like the Overrun would be sick in here. It's not always the most efficient option, but Joraga Warcaller has very nice versatility, if you have 5 or 7 mana it's a huge buff. If you use Warcaller, I really liked having 1 or 2 Immaculate Magistrate, which also synergizes with your card draw effects.

Have you thought about switching out some copies of Nissa for Wellwisher? Wellwisher lacks Haste, but it comes out sooner and counts as an elf (it's almost always less life, but might give more offense).

Really neat take on Elves, Green isn't known for this kind of thing, but maybe it should be!

wallisface on Do I Need Eight Loci …

2 years ago

Looking at the actual Locus decks, you need stuff like Crop Rotation, Once Upon a Time, Candelabra of Tawnos and Expedition Map to make it work. I’d suggest that if you’re unable to commit to the shell Locus needs to actually do something meaningful, to either switch to Tron lands or ditch this fast-mana plan.

Balinor5 on

2 years ago

Since you're going more green than colorless in this deck, you may want to replace the Ancient Stirrings with Once Upon a Time, since you could whiff on the Stirrings.

I think a couple copies of Sylvan Scrying would be your best bet to get the lands you need. Since Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is Legendary and you'll be able to find lands, I think two copies would be plenty, especially if you work in Sylvan Scrying. Since you are running green, I'd consider replacing two copies of Yavimaya with 2 copies of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. The Boseiju's are great since they have that channel ability.

You have a lot of "play extra land" abilities... too much IMO. The Arboreal Grazers are great early game, but are dead cards later. Unless you run a single copy of Assault Formation. That wouldn't affect your other creatures, but it kind of takes the deck in a different direction. However, if you have tons of mana, you could really boost your creatures through that last ability.

I think you need to find the right balance though playtesting for your Grazers/Azuza/Explore.

I'm not a fan of Turntimber Symbiosis  ^Flip for what it does. If you have the $$$ Green Sun's Zenith is way better. You'd probably only need to run 1-2 of those, since they recycle themselves, and you can replace the other two copies with Regrowth for renewal or Heroic Intervention for protection.

Lastly, I think you should try to find a way to fit in one or two copies of World Breaker. He does so much work, and if you're dumping lots of lands, you can bring him back from the graveyard.

Not sure what the right answer on your 4x Amulet of Vigor. They are key to get the deck going fast, but later on they are dead cards. Maybe bring it down to 3 copies or even two and try to work in a copy of Bow of Nylea (great all around support card all 4 modes are good for you, and the static ability is amazing with all your trample) and maybe Nylea, God of the Hunt.

Hope this helps give some ideas... The short of it, is that I think you may have too much "play an extra land" and need to watch the potential for late dead cards. Otherwise, it looks great. Primeval Titan is perfect in a deck like this.

DreadKhan on Ajani W/G/R - My First Deck - Legacy i think

2 years ago

If you want to run only 18 lands, you might want to look at some more ramp. An old staple for budget play is Rampant Growth, but Harrow might also be worth a look, since it can fix your mana effectively. There are also options like Farhaven Elf to consider if you really want the body, or Springbloom Druid, in a pinch you could try Silverglade Pathfinder, but it's very slow in Legacy.

Not sure if it's out of your budget, but some White removal might be good in here, the best option is Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile, but Generous Gift is versatile (and you shouldn't be too worried about a 3/3 compared to what you blew up), but there is also Fateful Absence if people run Planeswalkers. If you want really cheap cards, you might try Oblivion Ring, though that isn't always a permanent solution, it is cheap and versatile.

It's definitely on the pricey side, but Toski, Bearer of Secrets is probably a lot better than Rigo, who won't work with your 1 power creatures after they get a +1 counter on them, Toski pays you for each creature that hits. Ohran Frostfang is arguably even better, but it's more mana and easier to remove, Toski is Indestructible. If you use Toski, you could run x1 of him and use 1 or 2 Time of Need to help find him more consistently. It can also find Djeru, or any other Legendary creature.

A card I like on a budget is Blossoming Bogbeast, the +2/+2 and trample buff is pretty big, and if you've got some other way to gain life before you attack, you can make the bonus much bigger. Trample often ends games much quicker. It's clunky, but it's a pretty cheap repeating Anthem effect.

Another good staple to look at might be Once Upon a Time, which is amazing in the opening hand usually, and reduces how many hands you have to mulligan compared to just running a land or creature in my experience. Like Gitaxian Probe, it got banned in other formats but it's used in Legacy sometimes.

I hope you can have some good games with your new deck!