Ponder
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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
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Ponder

Sorcery

Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle.

Draw a card.

kamarupa on Balaam__'s Challenge: Get Twisted

2 months ago

I know High Tide is a bit, let's say, "conditional" but I like that it only costs 1 to cast, which allows it to be [marginally] useful to cast counterspells in a pinch. Which I know Extraplanar Lens would too, except on the turn I cast Extraplanar Lens, which would presumably be as early as possible, but that's also often the most critical time to have mana available to counterspell. Does that make sense?

I'm certainly not in love with Ponder and Fabricatefoil - so maybe it makes sense to drop at least a copy or two of those in favor of something like Blue Sun's Zenith? Do you have other draw card/tutor spells that would help me get Eon Hub + Reality Twist + Back to Basics into play?

Perhaps it makes sense to have 1-2 copies of High Tide and 1-3 copies of Extraplanar Lens?

kamarupa on Balaam__'s Challenge: Get Twisted

2 months ago

Thanks so much for the +1, approval, and thoughtful critique, Balaam__. I agree wholeheartedly.

My thoughts were: There's a not a lot of room for card draw and the deck has too many needs to be as narrow as Fabricatefoil is, but there with no narrow enchantment tutors or broad any-card tutors, the deck has to make do with what is available. To some degree, the deck has to rely on the control spells to carry it through until it hits what it needs. Whether Ponder and Fabricatefoil are the right combination - I have little faith they are - but a bit more faith the numbers (7 total) are in the right ballpark.

Similarly, Fog Bank isn't really what I wanted either. I actually would have preferred just a plain old Fog but no such spell exists for blue that I'm aware of or could find.

It's true that Back to Basics interferes with Academy Ruins, but I don't think that's actually a [major] problem - Back to Basics should make it a lot harder for opponents to remove Eon Hub. And, if some opponents are having too much success, there's always Illusionary Terrain in the sideboard to further flummox their land base.

I think a big part of this deck's problem - I did some playtesting to tune it and judge efficacy, etc - is that it has a lot of parts - decks such as this tend to be finicky and even with a lot of coaxing will sometimes just refuse to cooperate. Given the spell I was working with, I'd say I was successful, but if I were to grade the deck objectively, it's probably a C+.

Balaam__ on Balaam__'s Challenge: Get Twisted

2 months ago

I am tentatively in love with this.

Bypassing everything bad about Reality Twist is a stroke of genius—I foolishly kept trying to build within its confines and never got anywhere. The Eon Hub+mono approach is definitely the right one. You get all the best countermagic and ‘stall for time’ cards, it interacts wonderfully with artifacts, and Reality Twist itself leaves you unaffected.

My only real concern would be the odds of reliably finding the Enchantment. I’m wondering if Ponder by its lonesome is enough; maybe some decent draw power is worth including? At least you’re in the right color for it.

Back to Basics interferes with Academy Ruins, and Fog Bank seems like there’s probably something better to occupy those slots, but the rest feels like you’re on the right track.

I don’t think this is the deck’s true ‘Final Form’, but with the right iterations over time I can see this being the most convoluted nightmare for anyone out there sitting across the table. Well done!

jaymc1130 on

5 months ago

Seems like too many medium knight creatures and too little consistent value generation to really pop. Sidar just plain isn’t particularly good in EDH settings from a competitive standpoint, but can be much more effective in Duel Commander where it’s much less important to be able to play at instant speed with shields up at all times.

A couple generic suggestions.

  1. Currency Converter, looting effects go great with converter, and with a looting effect from eminence this card is going to be a must include for any Sidar deck.

  2. Call the Bloodline, Chivalric Alliance is great in a Sidar deck, why not a second copy of something similar? Both of these token generators also pair extremely well with Currency Converter as two card combos that can put in some real work. 1 mana and a card for a 1/1 and a 2/2 or 2 mana and a card for 2 2/2s are great deals in terms of mana investment.

  3. Containment Construct, pitching lands and playing them from the yard? Yes please. Pitching spells and playing them from the yard? Yes please. So much value to grind out opponents with and an excellent way to generate card advantage by using the yard as a second pseudo hand. Crucible of Worlds can also help get value from looting away lands in a similar manner.

  4. Virtue of Loyalty, a 2/2 for 2 mana at instant speed can be considered removal for creatures attacking you while just being generically on rate for spending 2 mana (much more applicable to Duel Commander than EDH or cEDH) and the second casting provides a powerful enchantment finisher that can get pretty out of hand if left alone for more than one turn cycle of buffing the whole squad.

  5. Reanimates in general. Unearth, Animate Dead, Necromancy, Jolted Awake, Agadeem's Awakening  Flip, etc. Slap some more of these effects into the deck so it’s not as reliant on Sidar reanimating things to generate value from the yard.

  6. More interaction. Fatal Push effects and some more counters like Drown in the Loch can help improve your chances of creating winning board states. Just playing some generic knight idiots and sitting around waiting for an opportunity to turn the team sideways is a pretty passive way to play. Generate some opportunities for yourself by adding some ways to affect the board in a favorable manner and protect the squad as you assemble it.

  7. Cantrips. Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm (if you can swing adding in the 9 fetchland package) and the like will help smooth out draws, make the deck more consistent, and give you things to do on early turns that proactively progress your game plan.

There’s a lot more I could add, but these are some basic things that could improve functionality without breaking the bank.

wallisface on Could Uro come back to …

5 months ago

For what its worth, i went through the modern banlist and made a list of cards i’d rather see unbanned because they’d be less toxic than Uro (note this doesn’t mean i actually want any of these unbanned, just that i think they’d be less broken).

Azoth2099 on Talrand's Tunnel Vision

9 months ago

Brainstorm, Ponder, Strix Serenade, Solve the Equation & Sapphire Medallion all seem worth considering here.

It's also worth noting that Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal gets you infinite tokens!

leovolt884_ on Dandan dredge

9 months ago

Bookrook I just meant any dual land of choice, shocks probably work best also to speed up the game since you'll need a lot of attacks with Slitherhead. The new ping lands could also work but they're slow. A new suggestion is if you want the effect of Endurance, run Blessed Respite instead. It's a fog that has the shuffle graveyard into library stapled on. Just because a 3 mana 3/4 could really quickly change the pace of the game. For Thoughtseize I'd suggest cutting at least one Life from the Loam because they probably won't see a lot of use with reshuffling the graveyard into the library and they can be cast effectively from the graveyard anyways. Maybe one Set Adrift also. I think it can clear too many cards out of the graveyard. It also has very little upside in its actual effect since its a sorcery and your opponent is just going to redraw that same card as soon as you pass the turn. The effect would be more interesting gameplay wise on an instant to set up your own draw. Codex Shredder feels a bit too slow especially with so few ways to set up draws that the instant speed mill doesn't have use other than filling the graveyard which other cards in the deck do better. If you want to up the complexity and interaction, add in some card draw, so players aren't sitting with empty hands in what is going to be a very slow game as well as add in card selection with Ponder and Brainstorm (which would be incredibly powerful considering since it lets you basically choose what your opponent will draw and what you will draw next turn at instant speed). If you do this keep the Codex Shredder at 4 copies, cut the Set Adrift altogether or replace it with an instant of the same effect, and maybe consider Clear the Mind instead of adding Blessed Respite. Also I believe traditional Dandan is run at 80 cards so bringing this list up to 80 would be super fine if you add in card draw and card selection. That being said it would really up the blue presence in the deck making lands a bit trickier :>

K4nkato on Tinkerbell says “No”

11 months ago

Back in the game with Glitters banned so I’m testing a stock list with shaves for Ponder.

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