Ranger's Guile

Instant

Target creature you control gets +1/+1 and gains hexproof until end of turn. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)

Discussion (51)

sbh on Beast Feast

2 months ago

instead of Ranger's Guile you should have Blossoming Defense

Murphy77 on Land War in Asia

3 months ago

Possibly the strongest Landfall card in the current meta is Scute Swarm, which can easily be the base around which a Landfall deck can be built. Scute Swarm with landfall generates a swarm of 1/1 insect tokens. Felidar Retreat then puts +1/+1 counters on each creature (including your insect tokens) with each Landfall. Felidar Retreat also gives your creatures vigilance for the turn. Frondland Felidar then comes in and allows you to tap any creature with vigilance to tap any of your opponent's creatures. As you will invariably have more creatures than your opponent, tap your smallest creatures to tap opposing creatures and attack Unblocked.

Conclave Mentor adds +1/+1 counters for each +1/+1 counter that you place on creatures. Murasa Rootgrazer helps Landfall by, each turn, allowing you to either return a land to your hand or play an extra land. Similar increased landfall results from Roiling Regrowth and Scale the Heights.

Then come the options and/or personal choices. Do we add extra counters with Vastwood Fortification  ^Flip or double up on a Landfall effect with Skyclave Pick-Axe? Is Kazandu Mammoth  ^Flip stronger than Wildwood Scourge? Ranger's Guile can protect your Landfall creatures, but Light of Hope may be more versatile. Can we afford to give up Roiling Regrowth for Hydra's Growth? Can we fit in Heroic Intervention against controlling decks? These are the choices that make your deck unique and personal.

Murphy77 on Gruul Landfall

3 months ago

I really like the idea. I just get the feeling that the most aggro landfall would be something like: Turn 1; Mountain and Akoum Hellhound, Turn 2; Land and Infuriate - swing with 5/5 in turn 2... With the landfall ramp that you get from Radha, Heart of Keld, you need at least 3 copies in your deck. I like the idea of Azusa, Lost but Seeking as a facilitator of multiple landfalls per turn, but a wide range of other creatures that do not have any landfall effects just seem to slow down your deck. Definitely, some instant power ramps are needed. I would keep in Cultivate. My list for this deck would be:

Main Deck

2 Phylath, World Sculptor,

2 Azusa, Lost but Seeking,

3 Radha, Heart of Keld,

4 Scute Swarm,

4 Brushfire Elemental,

4 Akoum Hellhound,

4 Kazandu Mammoth  ^Flip,

3 Cultivate,

3 Infuriate,

3 Unleash Fury,

3 Fire Prophecy,

3 Rugged Highlands,

3 Fabled Passage,

3 Evolving Wilds,

9 Forest,

7 Mountain.

Side Board

2 Ashaya, Soul of the Wild,

3 Thundering Rebuke,

3 Heroic Intervention,

3 Ranger's Guile,

4 Shadowspear (works in just about any deck).

DragonSliver9001 on Mono Green Devotion

3 months ago

Worldspine Wurm and Primalcrux are gonna be dead cards without Karametra's Acolyte, which is already a really slow mana dork and not what you want to spend turn 4 doing. you don't even have enough lands to reliably hit 4 by turn 4.

the biggest reason to play green devotion anyway is Aspect of Hydra. you'll probably want some ways to protect your creatures like Blossoming Defense and Ranger's Guile

TheVectornaut on Searing Infection

4 months ago

Most of my experience with infect comes from playing simic, but I have played the mechanic in all 5 colors. In terms of power, green is the most effective color to play by a very VERY large margin. You get access to the best infect creature in Glistener Elf (along with the slower and safer option of Blight Mamba), you get trample sources to push through damage with Ichorclaw Myr such as Rancor, Predator's Strike, and Larger Than Life, you get protection bundled with buffs in the form of Vines of Vastwood, Ranger's Guile, and Blossoming Defense, and you get the largest pool of very strong power boosts in the form of Mutagenic Growth, Invigorate, Scale Up, Might of Old Krosa, Berserk, Become Immense, Groundswell, Phytoburst, Noble Hierarch, and Pendelhaven. Since infect is an all-or-nothing sort of archetype, even when running the less aggressive versions, the most important characteristics that you need are speed, protection, and evasion. Green offers two of those things in spades but can struggle with evasion. This is why blue is generally considered the next best color to run. You get the insane threat of Blighted Agent, unblockable buffs with Distortion Strike and Aqueous Form, and protection from spells via Spell Pierce, Dispel, Turn Aside, and the odd Spellskite. Black is the next best. Plague Stinger's flying isn't as good as the unblockable on a Blighted Agent but it's still very powerful evasion as illustrated by the ubiquity of Inkmoth Nexus in every non-budget infect list ever made. Black also nets useful control tools like Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Dismember, and Assassin's Trophy. White was considered the worst infect color for a very long time since its best option (Apostle's Blessing) can be used in any deck, but the recent introduction of Giver of Runes has breathed some life back into the color. Additionally, I've seen a lot of equipment lists popping up that use Colossus Hammer, Kor Duelist, Sigarda's Aid, and Kor Outfitter to see some success. Unfortunately, that leaves red as the current worst color to run in infect. It has some decent buffs but they pale in comparison to green's offerings. The result is that most red infect decks rely on gimmicks like using Razor Swine's first strike to wither enemy creatures, generating infinite mana to pump into an unblocked Ogre Menial, or putting Phyresis on something like a Spikeshot Elder to bypass combat altogether. Your instant tricks definitely fall in this category. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If your meta is casual enough, red should still work and it will be much more interesting to play with / fun to play against than a more traditional deck. How competitive you want to be is always up to you.

To answer your specific questions, I would probably start by cutting a few creatures. Most lists run about 12 infect sources (and that's including a playset of Inkmoth Nexus). With Hand of the Praetors on your top end, running 16-20 isn't that unreasonable, at least as long as all of them are good. Infect creatures usually become "bad" when they cost more than 2. That's why I wouldn't usually recommend running Ichor Rats or Septic Rats. Both Necropede and Plague Myr are perfectly acceptable inclusions with very similar power levels. They'll rarely be better than Plague Stinger or Ichorclaw Myr but that's okay if you just want more guys to play. As for Vector Asp, it's honestly a pretty bad choice in most circumstances. While you usually won't need to activate it more than 2 or 3 times to win the game, that mana would be better spent elsewhere, and it doesn't even trigger the Hand. However, given the choice of it and a 3-drop, I'd probably take the snake, especially since it would be your only proactive play on turn 1 (barring the inclusion of Glistener Elf or Inkmoths). Better though would just be to run neither and invest in more buff spells to assist in combat and trigger Livewire Lash. I do like the idea of those spells having cycling in theory, but in practice, the mana needed to cycle can short you of the resources needed to close out the game. Plus, cycling spells tend to cost more to account for the added ability. Cycling lands on the other hand should be fine as long as they come in untapped, although it looks like that only describes Ash Barrens and Blasted Landscape. Just like with creatures, I wouldn't run any spells that cost more than 2 unless they can win you the game like Soul's Fire can. This will also allow you to run 20 lands or fewer, opening up even more slots for gas. I apologize if I'm repeating myself about the low-cost-high-speed thing but that is basically the reason the infect mechanic exists. If you prefer a slow and more controlling style, Rakdos wither built around Necroskitter is a fun option that has some overlap with infect.

Darkewarrior on KoM (Gruuzilla)

5 months ago

I love the idea behind this deck! Have you thought about swapping out Azusa, Lost but Seeking for a couple Arboreal Grazer? Also, I think you could run 2-3 Season of Growth (until they cycle out) in place of the Mazemind Tome and the Furious Rise and then run 2 Ranger's Guile or Heroic Intervention to try and stop some removal or boardwipes.

Hynx on

6 months ago

instead of Savage Summoning use Ranger's Guile or Blossoming Defense on the Elvish Piper before using his ability, and that you have some discard protection, after the obvious pull you are gonna make.

SafeNewt on Devoted to Quillspike

6 months ago

I would replace Ranger's Guile with Blossoming Defense because it gives it +2/+2 for the same cost