Ponder

Sorcery

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

Draw a card.

Discussion (47)

Oof_Magic on Banlist Open Discussion

1 week ago

SynergyBuild I can’t say I really understood how the Trickery deck worked. Could you enlighten me?

Oko, Thief of Crowns is certainly annoying but with Arcum's Astrolabe banned, perhaps in a Modern where Mishra's Bauble is banned, Oko may come back? Perhaps it’s not a matter of what is in the format right now or banned. Regardless of what changes could make it happen, I think there are cards next to Oko, like Birthing Pod and Splinter Twin which are cards I believe fall into a category of being worthy of discussing. Then you have cards like Gitaxian Probe, Hypergenesis, and Chrome Mox which fall firmly out of said discussion as far as Modern is concerned and can probably stay banned on consensus forever and always.

Karn/Lattice is certainly a powerful late game for Tron and I agree that it shouldn’t exist in the format. We already see consistency as the rationale for most bans Ponder, Preordain, Birthing Pod, Green Sun's Zenith. It strikes me as weird that it was not the tutor that got banned but the target. I think that Karn needed the boot. I believe Mattice was doing nothing until that came along.

sergiodelrio on Banlist Open Discussion

1 week ago

Hello fellow Planeswalkers. I made this thread so we can discuss the cards currently on the Modern banlist (SEE BOTTOM OF POST) and look if there may be candidates for unbanning, since it has been a while since something moved off the list.

I'm one of those crazy people that wants to live in a world where Mental Misstep and Gitaxian Probe are legal, but I see how that's not realistic whatsoever, so I won't talk about here. Let's have this discussion to be about REALISTIC, reasonable and safe unbannings.

Here are my candidates:

Deathrite Shaman - With all the easy cheap removal and grave hate in the format plus the general push of power level in the recent years, is this really a big deal anymore? Not even sure Jund wants it anymore. Since this doesn't enable a game winning combo or lockout on the spot, I think it deserves a second chance.

Artifact land cycle ala Ancient Den. So, they even injected another 10 artifact lands - are those even being played much competitively? My gut is this was a probe to see if they indeed could unban the old artifact lands. Artifact removal is much more available these days and the old artifact lands don't even come with indestructible sooo...

Rite of Flame - but Sergio! Fast mana is broken. Yes indeed. But they did ban Simian Spirit Guide and hear my out why Rite of Flame is weaker. SSG does not require you to play or a mountain to activate, Rite does and even costs a mana to begin with. SSG has a secondary feature being a creature and can be cast at a reasonable cost of 3 mana. Rite doesn't have that. Since they took Mox Opal and SSG, I think Rite of Flame might deserve a chance as a weaker substitution.

Please tell me what you think about that and/or show me your argumenst for other unbannings that you can see happening.

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Ancient Den

Arcum's Astrolabe

Birthing Pod

Blazing Shoal

Bridge from Below

Chrome Mox

Cloudpost

Dark Depths

Deathrite Shaman

Dig Through Time

Dread Return

Eye of Ugin

Faithless Looting

Field of the Dead

Gitaxian Probe

Glimpse of Nature

Golgari Grave-Troll

Great Furnace

Green Sun's Zenith

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis

Hypergenesis

Krark-Clan Ironworks

Mental Misstep

Mox Opal

Mycosynth Lattice

Mystic Sanctuary

Oko, Thief of Crowns

Once Upon a Time

Ponder

Preordain

Punishing Fire

Rite of Flame

Seat of the Synod

Second Sunrise

Seething Song

Sensei's Divining Top

Simian Spirit Guide

Skullclamp

Splinter Twin

Summer Bloom

Tibalt's Trickery

Treasure Cruise

Tree of Tales

Umezawa's Jitte

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

Vault of Whispers

multimedia on Fort Burn

2 weeks ago

Hey, interesting budget version of Kykar.

Lots of burn here doesn't have enough oomph when each opponent will have 40 or more life. Glacial Ray, Magma Spray, Lightning Helix and other single effect burn spells like this are subpar in multiplayer Commander. Flame Rift doesn't do enough, hitting all players for 4 damage a single time is not worth a card. Even being able to flashback these spells with Backdraft Hellkite isn't good enough because they're only doing damage to one player. Some advice is research Torbran, Thane of Red Fell burn decks and mimic the burn strategy with Kykar?

Impact Tremors and Zo-Zu the Punisher are good, it's the kind of repeatable burn you want in multiplayer Commander. Consider more repeatable burn sources?

• Manabarbs
• Burning Earth
• Guttersnipe

Barbs and Earth seem like very good repeatable burn sources with Kykar since have lots of mana rocks (could have more), Spirits can make red mana and playing lots of basic lands. Tremors and Goblin Bombardment want an infinite combo for they're burn that can create infinite tokens with Kykar or Saheeli, Sublime Artificer.

• Mana Geyser + Reiterate

By adding this budget combo you add some more competitiveness to your deck and Guttersnipe is another burn win condition with the combo. You can't do this combo if you control Spellshock. But with Jeskai you have many options that can bounce/tuck/destroy an enchantment before comboing while still keeping it in your control to burn your opponents until you want to combo.

• Aura of Silence or Seal of Cleansing
• Chaos Warp
• Wear / Tear

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• Shared Animosity
• Blind Obedience
• Ghostly Prison

What Kykar provides for a burn strategy is extra damage from attacking with fliers, 1/1 Spirits and Kykar. Animosity can make Spirits more of attacking threats and with a lot of them a win condition. Consider increasing the fort with Obedience and Prison? Obedience can also be a nice source of repeatable life gain with extort since you gain life each time equal to the number of opponents you have.

Consider adding more draw as well as more mana efficient draw to expand on spellslinger?

• Skullclamp
• Bident of Thassa
• Tandem Lookout
• Brainstorm
• Preordain
• Ponder
• Faithless Looting

Tandem Lookout when soulbond to a creature who can do damage to an opponent or all opponents you draw cards. Use this interaction with Guttersnipe since when he does damage you draw a number of cards equal to the number of opponents you have. Zo-Zu the Punisher is also good with Lookout because all players can play lands including yourself to draw. Lookout can change who it's soulbond to which is really helpful to first soulbond with flying Kykar or a Spirit and then change when a creature ETB who can do damage to opponents.

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Some cards to consider cutting:

• Fog Bank
• Essence Backlash
• Boros Fury-Shield
• Glacial Ray
• Magma Spray
• Momentary Blink
• Lightning Helix
• Faith's Shield
• Flame Rift
• Ionize
• Not Forgotten
• Martyr's Cause
• Backdraft Hellkite

Good luck with your deck.

Epicurus on Screw you pillow forts

1 month ago

I'm not the utmost expert on mill decks, though I've seen plenty of them on this site for easy reference.

First off, there are definite infinite combos for the theme, but I don't know them all because I prefer not to use them. However, one that I do know is Arcanis the Omnipotent + Laboratory Maniac + Mind Over Matter . That's more for a self-mill deck, and generally runs Thassa's Oracle with other infinite combos.

Other than that, here's a short list of things I can think of that are missing from your list:

• Blue doesn't have much removal, and relies on counterspelling to cover that category. However, in a mill deck, cards like Anchor to the Aether and Forced Retreat can act like creature removal. On a similar subject, Memory Lapse is a good, cheap counter for mill decks, though arguably better in multicolored decks.

• Sphinx's Tutelage, Teferi's Tutelage and Psychic Corrosion are really good for mill, especially if you add things like Windfall, Jace's Archivist, Kami of the Crescent Moon, Gadwick, the Wizened, Teferi's Ageless Insight, Folio of Fancies and Prosperity in there, as well as synergizing with cards like Brainstorm, Visions of Beyond, Ponder, etc.

• Other cards you may consider would include Maddening Cacophony, Keening Stone, Increasing Confusion and Telemin Performance. Also, High Tide as the best possible choice for ramp in blue, especially if you want to set off an effective Brain Freeze (which I think would be better off in a deck that was specifically designed to cast Storm spells, rather than a straightforward mill deck).

Sorry for the amazingly long and complicated response, haha. Also, I didn't take the time to check how many of my suggestions were already on your list, so I apologize if I did that.

Cheers!

enpc on Tasigur cEDH

1 month ago

I would recommend getting Breeding Pool and Zagoth Triome. Then get a copy of Nature's Lore, since it can fetch those two and Overgrown Tomb. Also, Dimir Infiltrator is a lot less good now - would recommend replacing it with something like Ponder or if you wanted to up the ramp count, then Kiora's Follower is really good.

As for cards to use from other decks, potentially Monastery Siege could be decent here since it's more cards in the yard for Tasigur.

Scytec on Tasigur cEDH Advice

1 month ago

@Lanzo493 - Wishclaw Talisman I actually own, I didn't think to include it because my opponents also get an advantage from it, but if I use it to grab my winning piece, then theoretically they wont get to take advantage of it. I think I will test that further. If I am not mistake I have some Ponder and Preordain laying around as well...I will take a look and see what I can find. I am already running two ways to net infinite mana in my deck, plus the win con of just getting Oracle and Consultation. I swapped away from a Tainted Pact win-con because I wanted to run more basics for a more consistent untap land ratio. I will look into getting some more non-basic lands that come in untapped, but for now I think I will just stick with Consultation. Endurance looks really solid, but unfortunately it is out of my budget range currently. I am running all the mana dorks I have access to currently with the exception of one in my Meren deck, but I want to leave it there, if I can get my hands on some more in the future I will definitely slot them in for additional mana though. I know Sky Diamond is slow, but it is better than my other options currently. In your opinion, knowing my chances of winning are slim of course, could I at least sit at a table of cEDH and get some games in with this list?

Lanzo493 on Tasigur cEDH Advice

1 month ago

Wanna play a not super $$$ deck but benefit off of everyone else's 0 mana accelerants, Docksides, etc? Run Culling Ritual. It's a great card.

I'm pretty new to cEDH, but I like to think I understand some of the basics. So take my advice if it appears sound. cEDH is mainly about speed and interaction. By utilizing 2 card combos, you can use just a small number of cards to win and use the rest of the deck to interact and prevent your opponents from winning. That is cEDH on average outside of high speed combo decks.

To translate that ideology into cards, it means that slow mana is bad. Lands that enter tapped and mana rocks that enter tapped don't allow you to keep up Counterspell mana at the same time as you mana ramp. This puts you incrementally behind until the crucial moment comes and you lose in a counterspell war due to lack of mana. For this reason mana rocks like Fellwar Stone are much preferred to Sky Diamond. However, a turn one Elves of Deep Shadow is still worth it even if it's slow on any other turn, so I would add that.

Another thing about cEDH that differs from high power commander is the shift from card advantage to card quality. You don't need to draw a lot of cards to win (think of cards like Genesis Wave or Recurring Insight), but rather just need the right cards. Tutors are great for this. Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm are fantastic as well since they're cheap, letting you keep mana up for interaction, while also giving you quality cards. I would recommend all of them. Wishclaw Talisman is a solid tutor that you can probably afford, too.

Honestly, with Tasigur on a budget, I would go for infinite mana combos, which you're already doing. Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal is on the moderate side as far as costs go, but it's powerful since you also have a lot of instants. You also already have Muddle the Mixture which basically only sees play in cEDH to assemble a scepter combo anyway while being a counter when needed. Well, that's at least why I run it. You can even search up Pili-Pala with it.

On a side note, if you run into Thassa's Oracle a lot, I would consider trading for an Endurance. Not only can this card trick an opponent into exiling most of their deck and alternate wincons in the process, it can also shuffle your own deck back into your library if it gets too full and your opponents only give you trash cards when activating Tasigur. And if you wanted to pull off a Tainted Pact win, you can use 3 normal basics and 3 snow-covered basics. Of course, you'll need lots of different lands, too, but it's not impossible on a budget.

Lokotor on Marchesa, The Black Rose - Primer

1 month ago

TraceT Instant speed is a big factor, and it lets you see a lot of cards over its lifespan (up to 5). I rate it better than cards like Ponder, Preordain, Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper mainly due to being instant speed and that it digs deeper.