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 (50)

DuTogira on The Immortal Mr. Mittens

1 day ago

PurePwnage SynergyBuild isn't a troll, just a very well informed player who doesn't sugarcoat anything. They're not wrong about their arguments, although many of their suggestions might take the deck down a path that I'm unwilling to take it.
Regarding board wipes, removal shouldn't be a part of this deck. If it is, then I can't really justify running a 6 mana enchantment combo whose primary purpose is to invalidate creatures.
Greater Auramancy might be ok as sideboard tech, but it definitely shouldn't be run maindeck as Nine Lives already has hexproof, which is its primary advantage over making 'just another Phyrexian Unlife combo deck'. Additionally, the whole point of my counter-magics are to invalidate enchantment removal while providing additional flexibility. Greater Auramancy is just more narrow.
Let's also be realistic here because too much redundancy is also a bad thing: What modern deck runs Thoughtseize, Blood Moon, AND Oblivion Stone? Thoughtseize is annoying, but most aggro decks don't run it. Jun[d/k] run it, along with assassin's trophy, but jun[d/k] are two of the biggest natural predators of combo decks due to the heavy and diverse disruption suite they run. I'd rather not invest too much into fixing a bad matchup, other than maybe including some Greater Auramancys in the sideboard.
Blast Zone is my biggest actual threat. Pithing Needle can fix that, and so can some Ghost Quarters, so running some of those in the sideboard may be worthwhile. Based on the number of decks running Blast Zone, Pithing Needle may even be worth mainboarding instead of Hex Parasite.
With that tech in the sideboard to help ameliorate bad matchups and cards that are very hard to answer, any remaining threats can (hopefully) be countered, and I'm left with a few slots to reinforce matchups that might flip after the sideboard.

DuTogira on The Immortal Mr. Mittens

6 days ago

Hex Parasite is a silver bullet and Swiss Army knife put together in this deck. You cite Blast Zone and Ugin, the Ineffable as problem cards. Parasite deals with those, and can remove counters from nine lives. I don’t run black, but by paying 2 life (which is life loss, not damage) I can remove counters from Nine Lives. One or two black sources may be prudent, but the fishbowl won’t tell me that. I can also bounce Blast Zone with Cryptic Command (again, not an answer) which slows down that particular threat enough to where I can hopefully finish a game 1 with Kefnet in time.
Kefnet is here as a very pesky, slightly faster clock than emrakul. Since he has evasion and inevitability built in, he helps close games against many more aggressive/midrange decks quickly, so that they don’t have time to draw outs.
You cite Abrupt Decay, but that can only target Solemnity, not Nine Lives. If I play right, I can either use Cryptic Command to bounce my own solemnity, or can replace the enchantment with a second copy next turn. I’m a firm believer that this deck should run no creature removal by nature of the lock, and that this lack of removal is what justifies spending card slots on the lock itself. If the lock isn’t strong enough... well then I really should just be playing U/W control instead.
As for pesky walkers and lands like Blast Zone which really can ruin my day (as can Oblivion Stone) the post board hope is that some Pithing Needles and my countermagic are enough to play through. Otherwise... rough.

I do appreciate that you’re trying to help me make this deck as good as possible, but I’d rather not go too far down that rabbit hole, as it’s very likely that the most competitive version of this deck just cuts the enchantments and becomes Yorion U/W control.

dingusdingo on Abzan

1 week ago

Cards to look at

Trinisphere - 3x of this will do everything you wanted Thalia to do, and more. This is the daddy of stax pieces, and it will frustrate tons of decks.

Collector Ouphe - Turn off equipment and tons of artifacts, 2/2 for , 2-3x and can easily go into your SB if you don't want to MB. Plays well alongside artifact based lock pieces like Static Orb or Trinisphere, look for triggered abilities or static abilities to build around the Ouphe

Gaddock Teeg - Shut off plenty of wincons and huge value cards, a nice 1-2x in this style of deck, and its a 2/2 for . This will usually turn off something in an opponent's deck, requires a bit of build around on your end.

Maralen of the Mornsong - Neat combo with Mindcensor/Arbiter and a great way to find your silver bullet hate cards you need, especially if you run them at 1x slots. You pretty much never want to play this without either Mindcensor or the Arbiter, so I'd look at 1-2x inclusion

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Dunks on tons of utility dorks and creatures, and if you have a couple hatebears on the field you can punish their life total. Expensive to cast, solid choice at 1, maybe 2 for a deck.

Root Maze - This card pulls double duty against fetch lands, and will generally slow the game against any style of deck. A real nice card to look at for turn 1 plays, but multiples don't do anything for you. Good 3x include, but you will occasionally mulligan another hand when you see 2x of this.

Plow Under - Nasty card that can stall out your opponents for two turns. 2-3x if you want to grab this card, absolutely brutal alongside Trinisphere, best used alongside mana acceleration to hit this on turn 3 or 4.

Weathered Wayfarer - Can be a useful card in these types of builds if you want to investigate further into land based tech. Useful alongside the Ravnica bouncelands like Golgari Rot Farm to guarantee further usage. Useful with Manlands to guarantee beaters. Works well with Inventors' Fair if you have a decent amount of artifacts.

Torpor Orb - Everything has some flashy ETB stapled onto it for value these days. Backfires against Uro and the other titans (no sacrifice trigger), but great sideboard material. Peek Hushwing Gryff for a creature alternate.

Leyline of the Void - Nasty card that breaks tons of combos and tons of value

Hokori, Dust Drinker - Another alternate to Thalia that similarly attacks their mana base, tons of lands to get around it like Ravnica bouncelands or Lotus Field. Best at 1-2x, don't wish to see multiples in your hand ever.

Kataki, War's Wage - I don't recommend this guy as Collector Ouphe fills this niche wonderfully, but this is always an option if you have 2-3 equipments you want to run that the ouphe would shut off and don't mind paying the tax for them.

Authority of the Consuls - Works extremely well against aggro, slowing them and giving you small life gain to survive further. Multiples give multiple life triggers, so not totally wasted, good at 3x if you're interested.

Blind Obedience - Enters tapped is nice, the extort helps stabilize you to late game while getting in valuable life loss against your opponent. Multiples give multiple extort triggers, so you can go up to 4x rather easily if you'd like to.

Sun Titan - Strong etb and attack trigger that reassembles your hateful board state. Return trigger works great with Ghost Quarter. 6/6 works great for slapping opponents.

Time of Need - Nice toolbox card if you want to run 1-2x of a handful of legendary creatures for this style of build. Look at Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Hokori, Dust Drinker, Kataki, War's Wage, and Gaddock Teeg. Gives consistency if you're trying to go for a silver bullet kind of build.

Chord of Calling - Lets you pull Aven Mindcensor from your library at instant speed, also gives Mindcensor something to do on the battlefield if you can't swing with it. Once again, powerful in silver bullet style builds.

Grave Pact - Big board control, heavy color weight cost. Targets neither the player nor the creature, so useful against hexproof/shroud and other hyper evasive creatures. Multiples work fully, but you aren't keeping hands with multiples of this in it probably.

Luminarch Ascension - Control or prison style wincon. Lots of these cards slow the game or shut off an opponents plan to win. This card can use the extra turns to come online, and becomes a hyper mana efficient threat when it does. Works very well when playing under adverse mana conditions, like Hokori, Dust Drinker or Smallpox. Your Aven Mindcensor can gain extra usage on turn 4-7 by chump blocking to power this bad boy on. Best in decks that want to slow the game heavily.

Smallpox - Nasty board control, another way to imitate the hate effect Thalia has on an opposing mana base while also hitting creatures in play and forcing a discard. Works best with cards that allow you to mitigate your own downsides, such as Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, Flagstones of Trokair, Ramunap Excavator. Works well with anything that has madness, works well as fuel for delve too. One of these after playing Luminarch Ascension can give it the perfect amount of space to turn on.

Liliana of the Veil - Whole lot of board control, whole lot of hand hate.

Pithing Needle - CMC answer to any planeswalker and tons of juicy cards that players want to resolve.

Fiend Artisan - Toolbox enabler and nasty wincon packed into one. A good choice for silver bullet style builds. The +1/+1 for creatures in the graveyard shouldn't be underestimated, it keeps the card as a live draw later in the game or with no creatures on the field. The hybrid costs help in 3 color mana base

Beastmaster Ascension - Put those bears to work. Works well on stalled out boards, but your bears have to survive the swings to turn this on. I personally don't like this as much as Luminarch Ascension but it is worth looking at as an option, especially if you have a lot of flyers or evasive creatures. Aven Mindcensor flys :)

Tendershoot Dryad - Expensive to cast, but getting a token each upkeep adds up fast. You will hit the cities blessing rather fast, and then it doesn't take too many 3/3 tokens swinging to end a game.

Xica on Mono Green Surge

1 week ago

shadow63
Tron actually plays a few things above the cost of ugin, like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. There are cards that can lock you out from using walkers like Pithing Needle, and Newlamog is able to break such lock, AND he can be tutored on demand with Sanctum of Ugin.

defamagraphy1
Blightsteel Colossus folds very hard to exile effects, and Path to Exile is not exactly somethjng you never see in modern. While in some cases its a faster clock than emrakul, its extreme vulnerability to removal keeps it from being more than a second rate win condition.

YamishiTheWickedOne on What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse

2 weeks ago

Mires yes Mesas no. They need to be able to fetch Black as it's your primary color. Verdant Catacombs, Polluted Delta, Bloodstained Mire, Marsh Flats all work here. Just pick 7-9 of any combination if you have them. If anything diversifying your fetches is techically better as game 2 Pithing Needle type sides hurt you less.

I'm interested in Mavren Fein as a one-of. In Edgar Markov EDH he's one of the best creatures in the deck.

Bloodghast is just a good card period. I've seen him as a 4-of in non-vampire decks so you KNOW he's great.

demont on Infinity On High

3 weeks ago

Hey man! Me again ... I've been testing out the deck and i gotta say, it works very smoothly and consistently :D

One thing i've notice throughout the games, the only thing saving my opponents from a complete lockdown were mana dorks.

With that in mind, is that how it's supose to be or, have you considered a few dork hating pieces such as Cursed Totem, Juntu Stakes or even some more untraditional ones for cEDH such as Holy Light and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

On a side note, there are a few traditional stax pieces that i notice you don't run, such as Pithing Needle and Grafdigger's Cage. I understand that Phyrexian Revoker is much better than the needle, and Rest in Peace is also much better than the cage but i'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

Eternaldark866 on Mayael’s Overwhelming Stampede

3 weeks ago

Recommended additions and reasoning:

Mirari's Wake, Mana Reflection: These come at cheaper mana costs than your Zendikar Resurgent. Drawing a card on the Resurgent is good, but not good enough, since you have to cast the creature. While you likely will have enough mana to do so, it is going to be less common than cheating out the creatures. Additionally, Mana Reflection will work with all permanents, not just land. So your creature and artifact mana will double as well.

Strionic Resonator, Rings of Brighthearth: This lets you copy Mayael's ability. Digging 15 cards for 3 creatures is better than 5 cards for 1...

Exploration, Oracle of Mul Daya, Bloom Tender: all phenomenal sources of ramp. Highly recommend Oracle for the ability to remove land fromt he top of your deck, allowing you to dig that one card deeper... where you will find...

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: Even if you aren't casting Kozi, you get a massive beater with Annihilator, and as a huge bonus, he helps recycle your graveyard in the event of a board wipe. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Gaea's Cradle: You run a ton of green permanents, and if you take the Mana Reflections from earlier, you double the number of green you get from it. It is a really cool way to generate a ton of mana super quickly. about the Cradle, creature heavy decks can always benefit from it, and again... Mana Reflections doubles it.

Warstorm Surge, Stalking Vengeance: 2 enchantments that give you free damage that you can use as removal for opponent's creatures or nukes to the face. Additionally, fun interaction with the surge and the Blightsteel Colossus I also recommend, the Surge says the creature deals the damage... unblockable 11 infect shoots someone out of the game.

Panharmonicon: In a deck with a ton of creature based ETB effects, this artifact is a must. With the Surge from earlier out, now you get 2 of those triggers.... Eternal Witness: Phenomenal recursion, and can save you by getting back something you need from the graveyard.

Genesis Wave: Now that we have you pumping mana out like a pro, Genesis Wave for 40, and watch as a large amount of unnecessarily large creatures enter the battlefield and turn them sideways because you have...

Urabrask the Hidden: Yeah that's right, get that haste, and if someone tries to flash in a blocker it's useless.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Privileged Position, Vigor: Because nothing says "fun" like having a boardstate that is hard to remove. Additionally, damage to your creatures makes them bigger. Thank you, Vigor.

Craterhoof Behemoth: You play this with 10+ creatures on the board, and you have an automatic 100 damage added to your total.

Tooth and Nail, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Zealous Conscripts: This is an infinite combo as well as the tutor to get it. Tap Kiki, copy the conscripts, use the new copy's trigger to target Kiki, untap Kiki. Tap Kiki, copy the conscripts... Create infinite Zealous Conscripts to attack everyone for yes damage.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: Amazing for both extra damage and protection.

Vedalken Orrery: Because playing on your opponent's turn is funny. And your Seedborn Muse really gets to put in work in a 4 player game, on top of the Mayael useage.

Vexing Shusher: Because nobody likes blue. This card is a big middle finger to blue.

Lurking Predators: So your opponent wants to cast things? Maybe you get a free creature for it. Can be quite useful.

Recommended cuts and the reasoning:

Desolation Twin,Krosan Tusker: They don't do enough to better your boardstate in my opinion. Desolation Twin is a 10/10 sure, but other than that, nothing. Chances are, you won't be casting it that much to get the second 10/10 anyways. The Tuskar only benefits you if you cycle it, otherwise it is just a mediocre creature. Additionally, cycling it only gets a basic land, of which you are running very few. This is not a criticism of your land base. I didn't want to touch it too much because my own landbase is significantly more expensive.

Gigantosaurus, Woolly Thoctar: These are just vanilla big creatures, which isn't too bad on it's own, but I like to have creatures that actually DO something more than sit there and look pretty.

Pathbreaker Wurm, Tectonic Hellion, Tyrant of Discord: These guys are all decent, but the Pathbreaker only helps one other creature. The Hellion is cool, but what if you have the most lands? You aren't running Crucible of Worlds, but your opponents might be. the Tyrant is more of a personal preference, I don't like it because of it's random factor.

Rith's Grove: It is a bounce land, without the benefit of tapping for 2 mana like the dual color bounce lands. Not worth running in my opinion.

Pure / Simple: This card is too restrictive. Running the Krosan Grip, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile are all better options. They don't force you to choose multicolor creature, or equipment or aura. They just remove a target.

Tragic Arrogance: I love boardwipes as much as the next guy, but this hits you just as hard as your opponents, and instead of using Invincibility to get through it, you have to sacrifice. Wrath of God would be a much better option in my opinion.

Emerald Medallion, Ruby Medallion: In my opinion, these guys are less useful since you are trying, for the most part, to cheat everything out.

Firemind Vessel, Firewild Borderpost, Wildfield Borderpost: While mana rocks are good, I feel that these guys are far too slow to be running.

Rith's Charm: To me it doesn't do enough by itself to warrant keeping. You have little to no ways of getting it back or making more uses of it, so it is a 1 shot item. I'm sure by now you have noticed I prefer things that have multiple and recurring uses.

Overall, I love it. I love Mayael, and she has been my strongest and favorite deck for a very long time (2012). My current version relies very little on her ability, because I played with a bunch of rather rude people that played Pithing Needle and named her all the time. It was not fun, but building my deck to use her ability as an option, instead of a strategy, changed the way I used her, meaning that the needle no longer leaves my deck dead in the water.

Please keep in mind that my recommendations are just that. if that Gigantosaurus doesn't do anything, but you like it because it's a dinosaur, and you don't want to cut it, you do not have to. I unfortunately gave up all my dreams of having cards I like for flavor, aesthetics, etc, because I decided to build my deck to compete and even stomp on combo and control decks. I have no room for cards that don't serve to better my boardstate as a whole.

Final Note: I will be more than happy to provide further insight and feedback if you have any other questions.

0rc on Belligerent Brago

3 weeks ago

Nice. I run a similar Brago build when I feel like ruining the game.

I see what you’re doing there with those mage tutors!

I’d replace Arcane Denial with Fierce Guardianship. Add Smothering Tithe to fuel your stasis lock. Add Pithing Needle because you can.

I’m not going to recommend anything more substantive, as I know from experience that Brago builds, despite all playing similarly, are highly up to personal preference.