Combos Browse all Suggest
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 |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Rules Q&A
Plagiarize
Instant
Until end of turn, if target player would draw a card, instead that player skips that draw and you draw a card.
Neotrup on Plagiarize versus Consecrated Sphinx
3 years ago
When the player who controls Consecrated Sphinx goes to draw a card, Plagiarize will replace that with their opponent drawing a card, triggering the Sphinx again. The player with the Sphinx can say yes to that trigger until the Plagiarize player loses the game as a result of decking. As far as I can tell from reading the rules regarding a player leaving the game, the effect of Plagiarize will still apply, replacing any remaining draws with nobody drawing cards, but if someone can find a rule that contradicts that, the controller of Consecrated Sphinx should be able to draw cards up to twice the number the controller of Plagiarize initially had, with the ability to actually stop themselves if they like.
DemonDragonJ on Plagiarize versus Consecrated Sphinx
3 years ago
If a player casts Plagiarize and targets a player who controls a Consecrated Sphinx, what will happen when the player with the sphinx would draw a card?
SideBae on
Aminatou in Progress
4 years ago
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So Preordain is awesome for the same reasons your Brainstorm and Ponder are... I suggest running it.
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Narset, Parter of Veils is a great way to limit your competitive opponents. Especially if you pair her with a well-timed Windfall . Ashiok, Dream Render happens to be another way to punish people for playing tutor-tribal kinds of strategies.
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Another hallmark of competitive decks is their ramp, especially zero and two-mana. In your description, you say you want to stay budget -- unfortunately, that rules out about all of the good zero mana ramp. ( Mox Tantalite is bad, and Mox Amber is hardly better most of the time.) So I suggest increasing your two-mana ramp, and maybe including Ancient Tomb if at all possible to speed up their presence on the board. Some to consider: Talisman of Progress , Talisman of Hierarchy , Talisman of Dominance , Coldsteel Heart , Fellwar Stone , Mind Stone , Everflowing Chalice , Prismatic Lens , etc. None of these should be more than a few bucks.
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Concerning your lands: I think you're running too many, especially if you add some of the ramp mentioned in (3). I'd cut four-ish, maybe five. Generally, once you have a few (3 - 4) lands, you'd rather have a rock and a land in hand than just two lands, since you can cast the rock without using your land-drop. I'm not sure HOW budget you want to keep this deck, but Mana Confluence and City of Brass are each around $10, and they're great in any three or more color deck. Pain lands ( Caves of Koilos , Adarkar Wastes and Underground River ) are better than your tapped lands like Sejiri Refuge , as far as I can tell.
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I think a reanimation package is probably better than running Show and Tell . Show and Tell is symmetrical, and is often actively dangerous to resolve in EDH, when everyone is trying to do busted stuff. I'm much more a fan of Buried Alive and Entomb to get your fatties in the bin, and then using Animate Dead , Dance of the Dead , Reanimate and/or Necromancy (which is $$$ for some reason) to get them back.
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Tutors like your Demonic Tutor are good, but like zero mana rocks they tend to be pricy (see Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor ). One I do suggest is Lim-Dul's Vault , which is only a couple dollars these days. It also happens to be instant speed, which is kinda dumb-powerful, if you ask me.
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Cumulative upkeep was designed to make powerful effects transient; however, Aminatou, the Fateshifter sorta changes that equation with her -1. Consider cards like Mystic Remora , which you can blink to keep around relatively indefinitely. Similar cards to consider are: Musician , Phyrexian Etchings , Tidal Control and Infernal Darkness (if you're particularly mean).
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Divining Witch is interesting -- I'd actually never seen that card before. If you're trying to exile your deck and win with your Jace, Wielder of Mysteries , I think Demonic Consultation is probably a better way... though you might want to keep both. Another method (that I think is worse) is to use the card Doomsday , which is only a few dollars. The problem is that if you run Doomsday , you'd likely want to run a Doomsday -package, so you could win by just casting it and drawing into your top card... For that, I'd suggest talking to someone smarter than me, as I've never been able to get the hang of what the hell is going on with that strategy. All I know is that the package usually has something like Gitaxian Probe and Lotus Petal and ends with me being dead.
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You may have good luck with card draw spells. Repeatable effects, like Phyrexian Arena and/or Dark Confidant , tend to be expensive; luckily, the spell versions are often decidedly less so. I suggest running a few or more of the following: Painful Truths , Night's Whisper , Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time (running both can be tough since delve can get in its own way), Fact or Fiction , Thirst for Knowledge , Concentrate , Chemister's Insight , Oona's Grace (questionable, due to the high mana requirement), Ancient Excavation (good with the reanimation mentioned in (5)), Archmage's Charm , Chart a Course , Syphon Mind , Deep Analysis and/or Words of Wisdom -- pay extra attention to the instants you can cast on an opponents end step. Another way to do this is simply to steal your opponents' card draw with Notion Thief or Plagiarize .
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Lastly, I know its around $11 these days, but I think Counterbalance would be dumb in this deck. Using your general's +1 will let you stack whatever you want on top, which can be especially devastating if you can keep an opponent's general off the board that way.
Good luck man! Love this deck.
Penguno on Deflection Themed EDH
5 years ago
Thank you for your replies!
@luther Great suggestion with Shu Yun! To be honest, he was my first choice before the partners, but another guy in my playgroul was using him, and I wanted to use someone different. Soulfire Grand Master sounds like the perfect choice to help me keep my spells, however I am a little hesitant on the cost of his ability.
@Funkydiscogod Those are some great suggestions for card draw. The problem is that most of the guys in my group run Consecrated Sphinx and that plus Plagiarize, Notion Thief, or Psychic Possession tends to lead to disaster. Thanks though!
Hazankob on
U/G Anti-spike Commander (EDH)
6 years ago
Some tweaking, was playtesting 1v1 (will do multiplay tomorrow) and while the deck certainly performs close to how it was expected, it still takes too long to kill the opponent with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir as the biggest creature in the deck.
Cut Eternal Dominion for Bribery. Without any copy effects Epic is too much of a drawback to be worth attempting and adding copy effects would require changing the nature of the deck so its out for a card with basically the same effect at half the mana.
Sakura-Tribe Elder out Kodama's Reach in. 1/1 simply isn't relevant and its replacement generates more card advantage.
Thran Dynamo out Leyline of Anticipation in. Cutting down to 3, 6+ mana cards (one of them which would destroy the Dynamo) makes dynamo relatively useless when taking the rest of the ramp into consideration. Leyline is just solid utility in any control style deck.
Mold Adder out Draining Whelk in. While its a huge increase in mana spent, this is basically adding another win condition to the deck. Mold Adder isn't bad but without evasion its not all that great either.
Mystic Snake out Cryptic Command in. Counter + Draw is almost always preferred to counter + 2/1, the other modes are just gravy.
Plagiarize out Treachery in. While Plagiarize is potentially very powerful there are many situations especially if you end up in top-deck mode where it is '4 mand draw a card', there are few situations where Treachery simply isn't the best control magic spell.
Clone out Phyrexian Metamorph in. Better card. Devastation Tide out Cyclonic Rift in. Better effect. I'll probably try to fit tide back in in the future but for now I'll settle for swapping it for a better version.
Addendum: I'm toying around with adding Empress Galina but so far it seems like she'd be too slow compared to relying on clone/control magic effects.
Ghitu_Spellbomb on
Wheel and Deal With It (Inactive)
6 years ago
Have you considered Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or other Eldrazi titans to help prevent getting decked? Only problem is that it doesn't save you from Plagiarize/Consecrated Sphinx.
Z0rr0453 on
Mono-Blue Swiss Army Knife
6 years ago
I would recomend Paradox Engine, Mana Short, and Plagiarize. Mana Short, and Plagiarize along with enough mana and a untap engine allow you to lock all opponents out of cards, and mana. Plagiarize along with a card like Day's Undoing means that you can make one or more poeople get rid of their hands and you draw instead. I have been messing around with a Kaho, Minamo Historian too, and I feel these cards are very important to the deck. I also am thinking of running Fabricate, and Treasure Mage to find Paradox Engine. Training Grounds is also very good with Kaho, Minamo Historian.
TuckerMTG on Oddest art?
6 years ago
Mold Demon, Frog Tongue, Plagiarize, Symbiotic Elf, Macabre Waltz, Ad Nauseam, Treacherous Urge, and Fallen Angel.