Plumb the Forbidden

Instant

As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may sacrifice one or more creatures. When you do, copy this spell for each creature sacrificed this way.

You draw a card and you lose 1 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

DarkKiridon on Ratatouille, the Movie - Let's Cook

1 month ago

Could try Plumb the Forbidden?

Crow_Umbra on The Glory of the Horde (Zurgo Ultra-Budget)

2 months ago

All of the suggestions here are pretty spot on. I've had an Isshin tokens deck in my lineup since 2022, and experienced similar deck-building conundrums in its earliest days. I have a few general suggestions, as well as a couple for more specific cut considerations:

• For decks like these, it's ideal to keep the average Mana value on the lower end. This helps set up quicker starts and makes it a bit easier to rebuild your board after eating some removal. I'd generally recommend looking at your 5-8 MV range as the first place to focus for cuts, as others suggested through more specific cuts.

• I think you can cut Crowded Crypt as something on the cheaper end. To build off my last bullet, cards at the 3 MV slot should be impactful enough to warrant them competing to be cast on curve instead of your commander. This will come from getting more reps with a deck. I make this suggestion for a few reasons: Crowded Crypt is a bit slow at 3 MV, it taps for 1 color of mana in a tri-color deck, & its activated ability is okay. I'd recommend swapping in another 2 MV rock like Talisman of Hierarchy or one of the others in Mardu Colors, or Rakdos Signet and others in Mardu colors.

• Since Zurgo cares about your token creatures dying, here are a few sacrifice enablers that help your game plan & are within budget: Plumb the Forbidden is an awesome instant to draw from, and Fanatical Devotion is a pretty cheap free sac outlet that also helps protect your more important creatures. Scapegoat is also solid as budget board protection and sac enabling.

• Neyali, Suns' Vanguard could be a potential swap with Mentor of the Meek. For an additional {R}, she gives your token creatures a decent key word and also provides some card advantage from the impulse draw effect.

• Starry-Eyed Skyrider could also be a solid swap for a suggested cut.

DarkKiridon on Edgar Markov: Lord of the Eternal Horde [EDH]

3 months ago

Some more recent-ish vampire options:

Clavileno, First of the Blessed (Was a precon around him, which I bought and upgraded). Charismatic Conqueror, Bloodletter of Aclazotz, Preacher of the Schism, Master of Dark Rites, Qarsi Revenant, Edgar, Charmed Groom  ^Flip, Welcoming Vampire, Vein Ripper,

If you want to be mean you could also run Braids, Arisen Nightmare.

If you want some more damage effects you could run cards like Impact Tremors, and there's more recent versions like Warleader's Call.

I also really like Plumb the Forbidden.

Some other cool options: Black Market Connections, March of the Canonized, Invasion of New Capenna  ^Flip

Last_Laugh on Thieves of the Black Rose

4 months ago

Feed the Swarm and Canoptek Tomb Sentinel will help with enchantment removal (something all these colors struggle with).

Diabolic Intent is a tutor that's not a game changer. Imperial Recruiter is another great option.

Ripples of Potential will help dodge exile wraths and Farewell. Plumb the Forbidden will also help with exile wraths. Lethal Scheme can potentially protect 4 creatures and be cast for free.

RiotRunner789 on Modular Marchesa

5 months ago

Part of the goal is for the deck not to be too strong. However, goldfishing, I've noticed there isn't enough card draw.

Phyrexian Scriptures is purposefully slow.

Lim-Dul's Vault will prolly be cut for Plumb the Forbidden. Every goldfish game it's come up has been to dig for card draw.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker will probably be cut. It's an essential piece in my other Marchesa deck as combo piece. Here, it was just good with modular or creating something to sac.

Leyline of the Void is a meta choice. Not enough grave hate at the tables nor enough enchantment removal.

Phyrexian Arena is a pet card. It's consistent and not overpowered.

Chromatic Lantern could probably cut this but fine atm.

Solemn Simulacrum works well for ramp and draw. Isn't oppressive.

Teval's Judgment haven't played it but the options are nice. Going to give it a try.

Last_Laugh on Modular Marchesa

5 months ago

I definitely recommend a lot more draw power but otherwise the deck looks great. Satoru, the Infiltrator and Danny Pink are absolute all-stars in Marchesa. Liliana's Standard Bearer is another that will draw a bunch of cards here. High-Society Hunter is another great option. Plumb the Forbidden helps dodge exile boardwipes while drawing cards.

BlueGriffon on Morel Outrage

8 months ago

FYI Village Rites is a cheaper Altar's Reap. Alternatively, you could run Deadly Dispute for the same mana and also get a treasure token - plus you can sac an artifact if you want. Or you could run Plumb the Forbidden if you want to sac 2 or more creatures at once

Quady14 on Slimefoot, the Stowaway

8 months ago

Phew, I got kind of exhaustive with this so apologies in advance but Slimefoot's very nostalgic for me so it's my pleasure to pass along some of my includes I didn't see mentioned already. Hope it helps and from one fungus friend to another I wish you good luck!

Dina, Soul Steeper: teams up with Slimefoot's life gain on saproling death triggers and in a pinch she can be a mana sink sac outlet.

Priest of Forgotten Gods: Easily turns saprolings into extra damage, mana and card draw, probably one of my favorite value generators.

Psychotrope Thallid: Has gotten grossly $$$ for a utility add, but undeniably one of the better small Fungus creatures alongside Utopia Mycon to draw more sap generators and life drainers into your hand while executing your gameplan.

Vitaspore Thallid: You never know when a little haste can turn the tables to start tapping abilities early or stage a surprise Overrun or well-timed Song of Freyalise, I like including this fella just for that.

Body Count: Similar to Plumb the Forbidden this instantly reloads your hand when you (or an opponent) sweep your tokens.

Dig Up: Fun on-theme turn-1 ramp that can be Cleaved into a Diabolic Tutor. Not that that's very powerful or speedy but it's nice to have a flexible multitasker in the mix.

Gruesome Fate: Easy game ender for big damage if nobody quells your saproling-growing, you can do a one-two punch casting this first, then sacrificing your tokens if you can finish off the table.

Saproling Symbiosis: A saproling-specific Second Harvest effect that doubles its count based on all creatures, not just tokens, so your nontoken life drainers will contribute to the token generation as well.

Spontaneous Generation: After you get a huge hand with Plumb the Forbidden, Body Count, Snake Umbra and Keen Sense this will basically blow up your token army to preposterous size.

Saproling Burst: Old card with clumsy wording but for Slimefoot's purposes you can basically drop it on the board, gain 7 saprolings by removing all the Fading triggers thus killing the enchantment, which in turn destroys the tokens made with it. Another great big-damage finisher or surprise value play.

Fungal Plots: Despite Golgari colors I don't think Slimefoot benefits as much from recursion as others so this lets you use your graveyard as a token cultivating ground when your nontoken creatures die from removal or board wipes, plus gives you an outlet to sacrifice those saprolings two at a time for card draw and life gain. It does a lot for a low cost so I consider it an auto-include.

Night Soil: Selective graveyard hate to fuel token production, not as multifaceted as Fungal Plots above but a good token generator to have around in longer games along with Necrogenesis.

Moldervine Reclamation: Good, generalized Golgari card advantage and life gain on death triggers. A little expensive but well worth it if games trend longer.

Agent of the Iron Throne: Just a nice life drain enchantment from the D&D set, enchantments stick to the board better than creatures too so it can be worth the slot.

Snake Umbra: Same as Keen Sense if you slap this on Slimefoot, other than the Totem protection which is excellent for Commander, you get a card for every instance of damage thus making every saproling worth 3 cards in your average 4-player pod. Unless your tokens get mass bounced or exiled AND you don't have one of your many free sac outlets you'll never run out of fuel for the engine. This also makes Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower worth considering in case you do end up holding a pile of good cards in hand, lol.

Verdant Embrace: Rounds out the Tendershoot Dryad & Verdant Force saproling-every-upkeep silliness with an aura you can pop onto your sturdiest creature so it sticks around.

Neko-Te: Last one and a weird one but Neko-Te on Slimefoot turns every death trigger into two damage so you'll kill your opponents in half the time/sacs. Good to shave down your turn clock to victory.