Pithing Needle

Artifact

As Pithing Needle enters the battlefield, name a card.

Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated unless they're mana abilities.

Discussion (51)

BMHKain on Sparky-chan's Undiluted Hatred to WotC

2 weeks ago

@king-saproling: (I apologize for mentioning you again; you okay there?)

OK. The Amount in question to cut has increased to 12 -> 15. But the stakes for cutting that much to 99 + 1 has never been more complicated. There are also some Key pieces I DON'T wish to call them quits for surprisingly decent Reasons. Here they are w/ Explanation & the like:

Meekstone: Uh, Oko, Thief of Crowns? YA RLY. Oko isn't just a Great Cook, he can turn an opponent's Creatures & Artifice to 3/3 Ability-less Elks. Tap them all, & your opponent's better have an option ready. But if you say Humility needs to be cut, do you think this combo can make for a better alt?

Teferi, Time Raveler: Uh, why? This card has High Synergy Value not just from Bouncing Stuff, but in particular: Wishclaw Talisman. These two are one of the best Combos for Superfriends. Just Tutor with the Claws...

Master Tang: THEY HURT LIKE CRAP, MAN! (No joke; he literally said that.)

...Bounce it before ANY opponent can nab it from you, & you got Synergetic Tutoring. The scariest part is that this Combo was very powerful while Teferi was around in Standard. YES. This was a legitimate Combo in Standard. Which also meant ARENA players had to deal with this Hell Clock. Ol' Master Tang himself wasn't kidding about his comment on Iron Claws.

(Reference of Note: Master Tang from Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist)

Ral Zarek: ... Err... Why no to him? He's got ALOT going here. He can Tap an Opponents Perms or Untap them, & yours too if you choose & Weiß Versa (There's a Bad Pun there). This can be set to Tap Artifacts & Creatures for stuff like Nahiri, the Harbinger to EXILE. These Perms don't even include the "Nonland" Restriction, so if an opponent has a response, you can Tap that land to restrict Mana Pool Levels. This also goes for their Rocks/Boulders to restrict their mana further. But in any way possible, as long as it is Not an Instant or Sorcery, IT'S A TARGET BEGGING TO BE WASTED OR EVEN REUSED. So much versatility, & the Scariest part? This ability increase Ral's Loyalty by +1. Not even 0 or even -1; this Loyalty Ability is not only potent, but it increases Loyalty. Though I will agree that -2 is lackluster in practice, though God help us all if Ral's -7 is altered in a way that the Amount of Heads in such a Game of Chance is blown to more than 5 shots for an Extra Turn each... XP Trust me, he's amazing.

I'd love to mention more, but these are my top contenders for what should stay (Unless Lethal Vapors can be used w/o something like Pithing Needle or even A creature like this...)

That said, What would your Final 15 cuts be in your case? I'd keep what I said (& Lethal Vapors if I had a noncreature Perm that is a Multi-Targeting Pithing Needle) for the reasons just said, & they sound like fine points to me. I'll try all I can otherwise, but for now, What would be your 15 cards to cut here?

(Can't believe I cut Tezzeret, Artifice Master; maybe something can be cut for him back in... Still owe you big time.)

Magraal on Emry, Lurker of the loch cEDH

2 weeks ago

Cantrips are always decent cards to run in place of more expensive options as they help you find the more central combo pieces, but you can also run cards that help you stop other people from winning. Karn, the Great Creator / Torpor Orb / Phyrexian Revoker and Pithing Needle are all solid inclusions and will stymie your opponents plans very effectively.

Omgawall on Angel, Angel, What Have I Done?

2 weeks ago

The high cmc is a little concerning, but so long as you hit your control spells, it should work. Just watch out for Pithing Needle.

I'd be really curious to watch it play out. I like how the deck is a little tricky running white counter spells, and circumvents the general lack of card advantage in white with Endless Horizons.

aeota on Inalla ETB wizard combo-control

2 weeks ago

I suspect it is only 76% because that rating system only counts hard staples to the format. As such, it won't count any of my optimal wizards that do the same exact things if not better than those staples. For example, for 2U you get two Hideaway Watcher for Tomorrow.. which amounts to: Look at top 4, put one in hand and three on bottom of library in any order. Then look at top 4, put one exiled under Watcher until he leaves battlefield, then put other three on bottom in any order." You can then sac/bounce/swing/block with the "original" watcher. The exile trigger at End Step will give you the copy's card so it's essentially a slow draw. If you can sac him with altar/exploit or clamp him, you'll get that card right away. So in Inalla, Watcher is better than basically all other 2-mana draw/scry spells in the game.

Critiques/comments welcome! I would love to improve the deck.

UPDATE 1:

• Replaced Nevinyrral's Disk with Oblivion Stone for Trophy Mage tutor.
• Replaced Buried Alive with Entomb for Spellseeker tutor.
• Replaced Talisman of Indulgence with Unstable Obelisk for Trophy Mage tutor. Trophy mage lacked a tutor target to deal with single permanents rather than the board (Oblivion Stone.)
• Considering Pithing Needle for Trinket Mage toolkit but unsure if worth it, and what I would replace... I could also run Expedition Map + Maze of Ith I suppose, which might let me add in Rogue's Passage etc for helping Wanderwine Prophets get through.

loricatuslupus on Risen Elementals

1 month ago

Alright, so right off the bat it's a pretty strong deck with lots of synergy but is lacking big payoffs or interaction which means you'll struggle to do much against combos. As a creature-based deck you're also naturally weak to board wipes and removal.

We can start by improving the mana base: 24 is probably the right number considering the Reefs, and looking at the stats it looks like what you want early are Forests and Mountains. I'd definitely recommend Cinder Glade/Sheltered Thicket due to their having the basic subtypes, so can be utilised alongside both the reveal (Game Trail)) and check (Rootbound Crag/Hinterland Harbor) lands. Unclaimed Territory gives you all three colours but will get slightly worse if you start including more non-creature spells, while Lumbering Falls seems pretty good for you what with being an Elemental and all. Finally there are the shock lands and a strict upgrade to Evolving Wilds in Fabled Passage but they cost money. Ps you want to put "ZEN" in the square brackets after the lands of you want them show up as those lovely original Zendikar ones.

Ok, with that out of the way, we can take a look at the creatures. I maintain that a single Omnath, Locus of Rage is the best top end you can have here, as he'll do silly things with all your lands entering and if anyone tried to wrath your board they'll probably just end up killing themselves! Also two copies of his latest incarnation (Omnath, Locus of the Roil) again gives you some damage to ping around and some card draw. Undergrowth Champion is a beast, and the Cavalier cycle might be worth looking into as well. I think you can easily afford to cut some creatures in order to get other spells in - maybe down to 28? Stuff I'm thinking of would be Temur Battle Rage, Growth Spiral, Neoform, Hadana's Climb  ^Flip, and Retreat to Kazandu.

Finally there's your sideboard, if you want to get into that for the paper version. Here you'd probably want to consider Plasm Capture, Broken Bond, Cindervines, Shapers' Sanctuary, Rhythm of the Wild, 2 Pithing Needles or Sorcerous Spyglasss and maybe a single Chandra, Awakened Inferno.

Oloro_Magic on Help needed with SkredRed build

1 month ago

Hey!

First off welcome back to modern, it's been a while I see and yeah... things haven't been too kind to Skred Red, first off I will say that the current lists are likely temur now, here is an example:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-temur-midrange-165516#paperTEMUR MIDRANGE

That's just to give you an idea of where snow as an archetype has gone nowadays but let's talk about classic skred red. Basically you want to get yourself 4 Arcum's Astrolabe right away, the card quite frankly is broken, it replaces itself and ups your skred snow count right away. Here is a list from MTUgin that I am a fan of:

MTUgin's Deck

Lands

2 Frostwalk Bastion

2 Scrying Sheets

18 Snow-Covered Mountain

Creatures

2 Eternal Scourge

2 Seasoned Pyromancer

1 Hazoret the Fervent

2 Stormbreath Dragon

Planeswalkers

1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame

2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

2 Koth of the Hammer

Spells

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Skred

3 Anger of the Gods

Artifacts

3 Relic of Progenitus

4 Arcum's Astrolabe

4 Mind Stone

1 Ratchet Bomb

Enchantments

3 Blood Moon

Sideboard

2 Goblin Rabblemaster

3 Simian Spirit Guide

2 Chandra, Awakened Inferno

2 Shattering Spree

2 Pillage

2 Pithing Needle

2 Dragon's Claw

That list can use a lot of work, for example I think Blast Zone is likely just better than the ratchet bomb, and another little Chandra could be played, but it should give you something to work from. Skred right now can be a little weird, Primeval Titan decks are very good right now meaning being the Blood Moon deck isn't a bad place to be, but you really do lack any meaningful sideboard cards. I'd probably cut the SSG's for Damping Sphere which is also good against titan and storm. If your meta turns out to be a ton of titan you should be decently positioned otherwise one of skred's biggest problems in this day and age is what is becoming the end all and be all of the modern format and that is game actions per turn. Skred has a very low count on this and thus is inherently behind decks like amulet or urza which are doing many things a turn. Now, again Blood Moon can just win games but it is a concern. The temur build solves this problem some but is a very different deck.

As for having to buy new cards, its a reality all us modern players have had to face, 2019 produced a LOT of staple cards: Wrenn and Six, Teferi, Time Raveler, Urza, Lord High Artificer, Arcum's Astrolabe, and Oko, Thief of Crowns to name a few. In a way Skred has a lot less than most decks so there is that to look forward to I guess. My advice to you though is just cast moon, you can update as you go, moon will steal you games while you do. If I were you I would prioritise the Chandra's and Seasoned Pyromancer both seem good here. Let me know what your meta looks like I'd be happy to help you out with a sideboard!

Good draws!

dingusdingo on

1 month ago

Interesting deck.

My first question is why no damage doubler effects? Furnace of Rath and similar work extremely well. Even though the opponent gets to decide what order the damage effects happen, you're still getting a big damage boost.

Second, have you considered going down to 33 or 32 lands? Your curve is pretty low and you aren't dumping your hand via artifact rocks or mana rituals. I think you could probably find one or two slots from land drops.

How have the planeswalkers been working out? The 4 CMC Chandra seems fine, but the other two seem expensive for not much effect.

Why are you running colorless creatures? The damage isn't amplified. Reality Smasher is expensive to cast at 5, and is effectively a vanilla 5/5 that keeps up card parity when it is removed. Smuggler's Copter gives card looting but requires creatures to make it work, creatures that could just be attacking and getting the +2 damage anyways. I can also see why you'd keep Phyrexian Revoker but Pithing Needle might outperform it here as its harder to remove and 2 damage a turn is negligible in EDH.

Some of your 3 and 4 CMC creatures you should reconsider for speed and effectiveness purposes. Thunderbreak Regent is a flying creature, but you aren't getting reliable triggers from it, most likely just one. Tectonic Giant offers card advantage and MASSIVE damage with Torbran. Inferno Titan is another powerhouse with Torbran as you can split the damage 3 ways and get 3 damage apiece. Mindsparker seems too niche and is a 3/2 first strike for against decks outside its color hate. Jaya Ballard, Task Mage seems nice but waiting for summoning sickness feels bad and having to pitch cards to it is a no from me. Taurean Mauler is certainly appealing and presents a threat later, but without trample you're losing out and would be better served by Hordeling Outburst for efficiency sake with Torbran. Finally, Dragonmaster Outcast takes way too long to turn on, and requires an upkeep step to do anything, making it prime target for opponents to remove. Its great when it works, but another token producer is going to outpace this. Specifically, Krenko, Mob Boss is going to run away with the game much faster especially if you have any random extra goblins floating around.

Alpine Moon is much more marginal than you think. Sure its shutting down Gaea's Cradle but your two other moon effects should be more than enough. Outpost Siege is a very marginal effect both ways, and I would recommend a cut for Impact Tremors if you are looking for more damage. Tectonic Reformation is -1 card advantage when you cast it, and no matter how many times you cycle it stays at -1 card advantage. It also becomes easier to cut if you go down to 32 or 33 lands. Experimental Frenzy seems useful when you've emptied your hand but seems marginal in the vast majority of circumstances. You aren't really running topdeck manipulation like Sensei's Divining Top or Scroll Rack to smooth this card out, and I sincerely think Thrill of Possibility is going to serve you better by making you have better turn 3's and turn 4's in your games.

SynergyBuild on Urza Power Scepter

1 month ago

dingusdingo omg finally someone with a brain, you actually get how trash this is vs Fish. I started to use the PolyTyrant builds but hated it's no-creature requirement, now I am on a list that is so anti-hulk it runs Torpor Orb and Grafdigger's Cage, Sorcerous Spyglass, Phyrexian Revoker and Pithing Needle for my metagame xD

Otherwise, though ngl even that list sucks, I also agree with AlwaysSleepy about how bad this is against hulk.

Btw, when is this thing gonna get updates?