Quillspike

Creature — Beast

(B/G), Remove a -1/-1 counter from a creature you control: Quillspike gets +3/+3 until end of turn.

Discussion (45)

wallisface on Don't Be Soo Negative

2 weeks ago

The only infinite combo i’m seeing here is infinite power with Quillspike and Devoted Druid… every other interaction looks like it’ll only be repeatable until you run out of mana.

I think if i were to suggest anything, it would be to lower your curve. You have almost nothing to do turn-1, and while you do have a lot of mana-dorks, your cards are super-weighted towards needing 3-mana, which is going to lead to some really slow starts

JacobAGrossman on Glittering Company

1 month ago

Finally made the changes I've wanted to for a long time. A Vizier of Remedies and a Devoted Druid are out. Only need one of each to get the combo going, and again, it's just an incidental one more than an actual focus of the deck. I noticed the cards are pretty terrible on their own, and aren't really worth it. Devoted is a mana dork that costs 2, which makes no sense in modern these days, and the Vizier is just useless without another combo piece.

The Renegade Rallier is out, too. The card advantage slot has been taken over by both Augur of Autumn and Dark Confidant, which, honestly, there's no excuse for not having already had in the deck.

Torens, Fist of the Angels has been an amazing addition. It has the creature pressure of Magus of the Bridge or Voice of Resurgence without the weaknesses. Also, the creatures he creates are green, for Chord of Calling, and can grow big as the game goes on.

Finally, Hexdrinker was the obvious and natural replacement for Quillspike. They basically do the same thing, just the hex is way better haha, for every reason.

Gidgetimer on Custom commander Sewer Slime

2 months ago

To address your general speed problem, you are running 33 lands and 6 ramp with an average CMC of 3.57. This is entirely too mana light in my opinion. In my Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons deck I also run 33 lands, but have 11 ramp and an average CMC of 3.10. The ramp that I run that isn't in here is: Birds of Paradise, Devoted Druid, Llanowar Elves, Golgari Signet, Three Visits, Nature's Lore, and Wild Growth. Farseek always puts the land in tapped, so I run Three Visits and Nature's Lore over it since they grab the same duals. I'm not sure why I don't have STE in my list, though it runs well enough that I am not looking for more ramp. Since your average CMC is higher you may want to go with 13 ramp and just keep the ones you have and add all 5 of the additions.

To help with having sac fodder you are going to want creatures that recur themselves. You already have Reassembling Skeleton, but undying and persist would also let you recycle creatures for multiple activations. Puppeteer Clique, Rendclaw Trow, Woodfall Primus, Young Wolf, Strangleroot Geist, Geralf's Messenger, and Butcher Ghoul are all fine includes in a deck that wants to kill off it's own creatures in some way. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed will also grant all of your non-human creatures undying.

Burst card draw can be achieved with the black cards for life sorceries (Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones, Ancient Craving). You can sustain card draw with Smothering Abomination, Phyrexian Arena, Skullclamp and Necropotence.

I think you could do with a few more sacrifice outlets as well, so I would add Viscera Seer and Phyrexian Altar. Viscera Seer also provides card filtering.

The following topics will help improve the deck in terms of pure strength, but may not be how you or your playgroup is wanting to play magic. Everyone's idea of fun is different, so I am going to include the suggestions in case they are something that both you and your group find acceptable.

Above some cards were mentioned that have the possibility to combo with cards already in the deck or with each other. Each card however is good in its own right and does not have to be used in the combos. If you are willing to go combo with the deck I will further explain these and also add some other cards specifically for the purpose of combos.

Yawgmoth and two undying creatures create a loop where you sacrifice the undying creatures in order to put -1/-1 counters on each other. It costs a life per iteration, but would give you the death triggers for your commander and for Gutter Grime. Adding in Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, or other similar effects gains you the life back and turns the loop into a win condition.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and any of the persist creatures allow for infinite sacrifice loops as the creature will come back with alternating +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters. Walking Ballista and Triskelion combo with Mikaeus and allow for infinite damage loops, in the case of Ballista you need a sacrifice outlet though. Things that enter with -1/-1 counters or that allow you to remove their +1/+1 counters for other reasons will also have similar interactions without the infinite damage.

With Devoted Druid you can add in Quillspike for shenanigans with infinite power Quillspike via tapping for green, untapping by putting a -1/-1 counter, adding power by paying green and removing the -1/-1 counter. This can be done with necrotic ooze as a 1-card combo if both pieces are in your graveyard. You can also get infinite death triggers by repeatedly killing Devoted Druid with Mikaeus out by activating the untap ability when she is not tapped.

Instead of card number advantage from drawing you could get card quality advantage from tutoring. In Golgari you have access to the best creature tutors and the best all around tutors available. Eldritch Evolution, Green Sun's Zenith, Worldly Tutor, and Finale of Devastation for creatures. Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Grim Tutor for all around.

JacobAGrossman on Glittering Company

3 months ago

Missing the last card in the deck. I don't think the Kirin is the right choice. I tried card advantage, but Renegade Rallier, Welcoming Vampire, and Augur of Autumn all didn't feel right. I tried more capitalizing on Devoted Druid's potential, with Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip or a second Quillspike, which didn't feel right either. I think I'm looking for a something to help things scale up and become more threatening, like Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit does, or Kodama of the West Tree could be able to. Not really sure what the best choices are for the slot, though, since I'm not really sure what kinds of things would be the best ones to fill the role

nbarry223 on Glittering Company

3 months ago

Yeah, Boseiju, Who Endures looks really good, I already know how I am going to change up my deck once I get my hands on 2 copies. Also, Kodama of the West Tree looks like it could be potentially good for you, due to the number of +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters you have going on. It may be a decent way to ramp more and yet another psuedo-answer to moon.

I don't really think you need a way to search up Lair of the Hydra since it doesn't have any built in protection or evasion. In most cases Quillspike or Rhonas the Indomitable would just be a better outlet for your mana, and they're both actually searchable.

JacobAGrossman on Glittering Company

4 months ago

After first round of playtesting, thinking something like this. Not 100% sure of the card choices, but I think I like these numbers better than relying on Quillspike and Devoted Druid so heavily mainboard.

nbarry223 on Glittering Company

4 months ago

Yeah, it is a lot to think about, but I think there's definitely room for cuts to be made so you are more consistent. I think 1-2 Quillspike main is fine, it does synergize well with the Kitchen Finks in addition to Devoted Druid which is why I had it at 2. It's probably not worthy of 3 slots as it doesn't do enough.

Eternal Witness is great, and comparable to Renegade Rallier. There's enough fetches / sack outlets that you can almost always trigger Renegade Rallier. The main differences is the CMC, permanents, and hand vs. battlefield. Eternal Witness's main upside over Renegade Rallier is in recurring Collected Company. But if you don't have a Collected Company in the graveyard, Renegade Rallier is generally superior. Keeping both slots is once again fine, but the more you can do with less, the more consistent you can make your 'game winners.' There's some overlap between Endurance / Eternal Witness / Renegade Rallier, so you should be able to pick 2 of them. Maybe the 2 I picked weren't the same 2 you would have picked.

Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit let's you infinite sac Kitchen Finks since it'll come back as a 2/1 which will always be the lowest toughness. It's a more synergistic option than some of the other anti -1/-1 options, that actually can just pump other creatures on its own. For example, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Renegade Rallier or Collected Company would just give you nice bolster options, letting you play as sort of a midrange deck if need be. None of the other anti -1/-1 cards let you transition to more of an aggro strategy with non-combo pieces.

Also keep in mind what I think was my biggest point - cut Revival / Revenge from the side, as you can already wish for almost everything it would recur. With that slot, you can use it for a creature you actually plan to side in, so if you take out a strong hate card like Endurance from your initial 60, you still have access to it in games 2/3 when it is relevant.

JacobAGrossman on Glittering Company

4 months ago

Haha thats funny, that was one of my first thoughts, too. I get that it's a two card combo, but it's also really vulnerable, and not a perfect win. Maybe only 1 Quillspike mainboard?

Eternal Witness is in a rather unique slot, in that it can return a land, CoCo, or Chord to my hand, or any other creature. I've actually enjoyed how surprisingly useful it is, every single time I get it.

I do see what you're saying about the Blood Artist, though. It was just nice to be able to get a win con out of CoCo or Chord without having to rely on a Wish, but a lot of the deck has to do that so maybe I just get used to it haha.

I also understand about Rhonas as well, that's also just a weird feeling. Without an infinite mana finisher, it almost feels like that part of the deck is an afterthought. I feel like this new version of the deck, although statistically sound, would have nothing to do with infinite mana most of the time, if the only things in the whole deck are a land and a wish. Maybe Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip or something instead? But I have just found Rhonas the Indomitable to be the most useful overall.

Lastly, in regards to cutting Melira for Anafenza, what would be the point? I get that Anafenza works for Devoted Druid, but thats basically it. Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit was supposed to be there to let -1/-1 counters be placed on creatures, but there's nothing to really take advantage of that. Not sure how I feel.

But wow, thank you again for all the work you've put in. It feels great to be finally addressing these aspects of the deck after all this time haha