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.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (45)

Madhava on glissaboyzz

1 month ago

I'd recommend Karn, the Great Creator x4. Move one of your Liquimetal Coatings to sideboard so Karn can fetch it for you, for those times when you can't seem to draw into any. Liquimetal-Coat one of opponent's lands, then use Karn's +1 ability to turn the artifact-land into a creature with power/toughness 0/0. Which dies instantly due to 0 toughness. Use in tandem with Glissa to blow up two lands per turn instead of one.

Then you could add more sideboard artifacts for Karn to grab; Batterskull is a nice finisher. Ratchet Bomb in case you need removal. Ensnaring Bridge for when you're getting overrun. Pithing Needle for opponents' walkers, et al... whatever you like.

These aren't exactly cheap... but replacing a few Forests with Boseiju, Who Endures may be a helpful upgrade as well.

PurePwnage on Nimble Obstructionist Vs Tale's End

1 month ago

I tend to fixate on mana efficiency and card selection that aligns with your decks mana curve. Tale's End is lower to the ground and can stop early game fetch land and plainswalker activations and trades fairly evenly with counter magic. Nimble Obstructionist seems pretty good on the surface because it provides an "instant speed" evasive body, but unless there's a way of cheating it in early it's a T3 or later at best. Which IMHO seems very clunky for the same reasons the even more powerful Vendilion Clique fell out of favor in modern. If a 3/1 flyer with flash and a Thoughtseize like effect isn't played in modern mainboards/sideboards, I question the value Nimble holds in the limited available sideboard slots. Pithing Needle seems really only valuable in terms of shutting down plainswalkers because it can only be cast on your turn and your opponent can react to it entering the battlefield. It's the one Mana difference that makes Tale's End much more flexible and versatile than Nimble Obstructionist.

wallisface on Nimble Obstructionist Vs Tale's End

1 month ago

Some sideboard thoughts in general against those decks you listed, and keeping in your colours:

• Living End: Rest in Peace.
• Tron: Damping Sphere. This card is also incidentally alright versus LivingEnd and Prowess also.
• Affinity: Fracturing Gust or Hurkyl's Recall
• Goblins: your mainboard already looks well positioned against this deck. I think Pithing Needle would be good here however.
• Swans: imo you shouldn’t need to have sideboard cards specifically to combat this deck
• Tokens: more board wipes? Not sure this deck poses much of a threat to you though?
• Prowess/tempo: killspells? Not sure how this is an issue at all with your current mainboard?

Icbrgr on Nimble Obstructionist Vs Tale's End

1 month ago

I think my only reservation about Pithing Needle is that its covering Activated abilities only... im seeing a lot of triggered abilities too which is why Tale's End in particular caught my interest....Nimble Obstructionist is expensive.... but the utility of also just being a 3/1 flash flyer to apply pressure is also appealing but probably just jank.

idk maybe less is more and going with Pithing Needle would do me the best.

• goblins: name Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Conspicuous Snoop

• tron: name Expedition Map/Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• affinity: name Cranial Plating

idk I need to study the decks more to learn how to use Pithing Needle for its best effect.

wallisface on Nimble Obstructionist Vs Tale's End

1 month ago

My vote is Pithing Needle all the way. There’s a reason that card is a common occurrence in sideboards while the others are unheard of

Icbrgr on Nimble Obstructionist Vs Tale's End

1 month ago

I've been attending my LGS for Modern and am starting to identify some decks to watch out for and am considering some sideboard options.

• Living End
• Tron
• Affinity
• Goblins
• Swans
• Tokens
• Prowess/tempo (two different players running this deck)

Im seeing a trend of creature focused strategies with a beatdown or activated/triggered abilities resulting in them winning.

So this week I think I am gonna try running a Jeskai Control build loaded with removal/wipes/sweepers for the Mainboard... but im looking for being able to interact/prevent triggers/abilities... I'm currently stuck between Pithing Needle, Tale's End and Nimble Obstructionist.

I would appreciate any thoughts on this decklist and any advise/pointers for the potential matchups i've been noticing.

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Ancient Way Control

Modern Icbrgr

SCORE: 11 | 7 COMMENTS | 911 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

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Max_Hammer on U Artifact Affinity

1 month ago

This is indeed a very funny affinity deck. I can help here, friend. (:

• Mystic Forge is going to give you pretty much as much freedom with playing stuff as you want. Unless you hit a land, that is. Taking out Gingerbrute and Aether Spellbomb for two of these is probably all you'll need.

• Shield Sphere is a blocker for free. I'd replace either Memnite or Ornithopter with four of these.

• Power Depot is too good to pass up. Swap out Spire of Industry, Razortide Bridge, and one Mistvault Bridge.

• Treasure Vault is very snazzy and should probably replace the rest of the Mistvault Bridges.

• Chromescale Drake gets you some extra artifacts. I'd swap him out for Sojourner's Companion.

• Tormod's Crypt should replace Nihil Spellbomb, Pithing Needle, and Relic of Progenitus.

• Qumulox, Broodstar, Somber Hoverguard, and Myr Enforcer are all just more affinity creatures.

• Mycosynth Golem is going to make everything absurdly cheap.

I also think that you should replace Welding Jar, Shadowspear, and Gingerbrute either wil three copies of Welding Jar or three copies of Shadowspear, putting three copies of the other into your sideboard.

lagotripha on Horde of the damned (budget aggro zombies)

2 months ago

My experience with budget mono black points to this being most of the way there - there are ways to reach FNM viability that won't work in tournament play due to scouting+decklist availability.

Carrion Feeder + Undead Augur is an incredible engine for black zombies - sac+discard outlets are great for the tribe thanks to tokens and recursion. Being able to sac gravecrawler to pump 2 creatures, draw cards and get tokens from headless rider is incredible value. This gives you legs that a lot of aggro strategies lack, creating a spectrum of options from pure 'make zombies smash face' to 'disrupt hand, set up cryptbreaker, draw lots'.

Mono-black's biggest advatnage is a large pool of 'good enough' cards, which become very strong when they answer meta threats. Its quite difficult to tell the difference between gravecrawler in aggro, gravecrawler in midrange with extra hand disruption/card draw, and gravecrawler/undying combo. That unpridictability wins games, if you read the FNM meta right.

The downside of this is choosing what to put in your 75 cards. Stuff like a single Bump in the Night/Soul Spike, a single Ratchet Bomb or Pithing Needle has an ovesize impact due to your opponents having to play around them. Pick carefully, and don't be scared putting options maindeck - worst case, they are gravecrawler discards. Look at how you win the matchups you expect, and build to that rather than trying to maximise damage or speed - a single duress can buy a couple extra turns hitting face in the right hand, and if everyone has the same few creatures in their hand you can reliably hit them with the cheap disruption.

If you want to spend on the deck, stick to format staples - thoughtsieze etc. Most everything else has budget cards that match its performance, especially if you need to switch up your plans to keep your edge anyway.