Read the Bones

Sorcery

Scry 2, then draw two cards. You lose 2 life. (To scry 2, look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom of your library and the rest on top in any order.)

Combos

• Read the Bones + Whip of Erebos

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

soul_knightmare on N'Ghathrod, negates, and mills

1 week ago

Yo, looks like you are a little low on ramp and draw. I would cut Cursed Minotaur, Dauthi Horror, Nebelgast Intruder, Phantom Ninja, Thornbow Archer, and Typhoid Rats for Sol Ring, Hostile Negotiations, Arcane Signet, Night's Whisper, Wayfarer's Bauble, and Read the Bones

jarncards on hasteland

2 weeks ago

For global haste you can use Fires of Yavimaya, Concordant Crossroads, Mass Hysteria, and Urabrask the Hidden who will also conveniently turn off other people's haste. Anger and Barbarian Class also give haste after more effort.

Ant Queen, Artifact Mutation, Battle Hymn, Circle of Dreams Druid, Dragon Broodmother, Pest Infestation, Scute Swarm, Tempt with Vengeance, Sylvan Offering, Termagant Swarm are all useful if you can give haste to all of them.

Birds of Paradise is just the best mana dork.

You have green, so you might as well use the standard ramp package with Cultivate , Kodama's Reach, Explore , Farseek, , Rampant Growth, Three Visits and Nature's Lore. Probably ignore most mana rocks, because people are going to want to vandalblast you just because of the treasures.

Relentless Assault, Scourge of the Throne, Combat Celebrant, Hexplate Wallbreaker, World at War grant extra combats, with Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault potentially going infinite.

Vandalblast goes in every red deck. Even though youll have a ton of treasures i'd still run Brotherhood's End too

For draw spells consider Scroll Rack, Garruk's Uprising, Elemental Bond, Soul's Majesty, Furious Rise, Rishkar's Expertise, Beast Whisperer, Shamanic Revelation, Disciple of Bolas, Pact of the Serpent, Painful Truths, Harmonize, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Damnable Pact, Commune with Lava, Lifeblood Hydra, or maybe Necropotence although the color restricion on necro is tough, treasures should take care of it.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer , The Reaver Cleaver , Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge , Ancient Copper Dragon , Old Gnawbone Ziatora, the Incinerator for more treasure makers. Pyrohemia and Pestilence could be fun with the extra mana. Awaken the Woods is an amazing x spell too, but wont appreciate the two aforementioned cards.

If you're using magda the deck will benefit from dragons and expensive artifacts. throw in Imperial Recruiter and Worldly Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor all go in your colors. so you can get her more consistently. Darksteel Forge and Gate to Phyrexia can be tutored into play with her for five treasure.

If you use dragons, you could add Dragonstorm, but you should carefully consider how many cheap spells you expect to be able to cast if you arent building specifically towards this card. Chatterstorm, Empty the Warrens, Yawgmoth's Will, Jeska's Will, Mana Geyser, and Manamorphose, Past in Flames are all good on their own and would add synergy.

If it ends up dragon tribal, cards like Crippling Fear , Kindred Dominance, Crux of Fate

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire is a very good payoff for using treasures if you dont use certain other nightmarish dragons like Atarka, World Render, Blast-Furnace Hellkite, Terror of Mount Velus, Thrakkus the Butcher

Crow-Umbra on Isshin for a Fight

1 month ago

No worries, it happens! Myrel herself does kind of look more like a knight than a soldier, so I can see the potential for confusion.

In terms of the other stuff you're considering:

• Authority of the Consuls - I run it in my deck and have really liked it, especially since I frequently play against other token and aggro strategies. Especially helpful for hampering Haste. Being able to keep other token and strategies off kilter to out-pace them can be crucial, and the bonus lifegain can help build some cushion against eventual crack backs. One of the best games I had with it, I got up to about 55 life before someone had the removal to deal with it.

• Esper Sentinel - Great draw option for White, there's no doubt about it. I used to play a copy in my old Osgir, the Reconstructor deck before I took it apart. I liked Esper Sentinel there because I had the potential to make copies of it with Osgir, and get a bit more mileage out of it. In my experiences playing Esper Sentinel, or playing across from it, I've found that it's most effective in early turns when players are less likely or capable to pay the tax. I think the tax effect becomes less effective as the game goes on, or without the Power/Toughness boosts to increase the tax and Sentinel's durability. The biggest downsides to Sentinel is that it is very vulnerable to creature and artifact based removal, so it is somewhat fragile as a draw piece. If anything, it ends up being a minor tax effect in early game to slow roll opponents.

• Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip - I've really liked it. It's essentially 3 cards in one. You're basically getting a slightly worse Captain Lannery Storm, a Faithless Looting, and a somewhat worse Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker on the back. Even if you don't have some scary creature to copy initially, you could always copy the Goblin Shaman token (assuming it's still alive). I've liked it when I've played it. I think the capability of maximizing "card economy" whether through sagas or modal options is super helpful to squeeze more value out of those precious 99 slots.

• Read the Bones - Scry 2, draw 2 is solid but not super exciting. I like Painful Truths and Gruesome Realization, which you already have in 99. Professional Face-Breaker is also a solid option for aggro combat-oriented decks, since ideally you will be connecting with a wide enough board. Treasures and options to impulse can be helpful. It's like a budget pseudo-Tymna the Weaver

Michigone on Isshin for a Fight

1 month ago

Crow-Umbra, you're right! I didn't catch that. For some reason I thought Myrel, Shield of Argive cared about Knights... Weird. Anyway, maybe per your above recommendation I switch in Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip. Would give me more ramp, and token production, and a little bit of looting. I'll definitely move Fable into the maybe board. I want to get a few more games in before Sigiled Sword gets the axe, as the vigilant tokens help with chump blocking and swinging for things that care. But you're right that the synergy I envisioned is not quite there. If I do cut Sigiled Sword, my thoughts for adds are Esper Sentinel, Read the Bones, Authority of the Consuls, and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip. What are your thoughts on those? Thanks for all the feedback and help!

Crow-Umbra on Isshin for a Fight

1 month ago

My personal playgroup implemented a house rule that introduces Monarch to each game, only if there isn't a Monarch deck at the table. Basically, the last person in turn order becomes the Monarch at the end of their 3rd turn. It's made our games a lot more fun and dynamic, but it's also removed my personal need for any Monarch cards in my decks.

I've tried pillow fort effects in my deck and eventually moved on to just lean as much into aggro and group slug as possible. Personal preference thing for sure. Pillow Fort effects can put in work in the right metas.

You could potentially swap Read the Bones for Gruesome Realization. Not getting the Scry 2 is a bit of a bummer, but the trade off for the modal option isn't too bad.

One of my friends in my meta has decks for Kardur, Doomscourge and Marisi, Breaker of the Coil respectively. Kardur can get nasty with just a bit of upgrading, especially with a Conjurer's Closet or reanimation effects. That friend is moving away, so I might not see those commanders as often, LGS variety aside.

bushido_man96 on Atraxa's Private Guarden

2 months ago

I like what I see here for the most part, but I've got some ideas for you.

Mana base: Since you're in four colors, lose as many lands that produce only colorless mana as possible. Keep Karn's Bastion, but consider cutting Gavony Township, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree, Opal Palace, Reliquary Tower (unless you draw a metric ton of cards here, which I don't see), and Temple of the False God. Possibly cut Unclaimed Territory, too. I see why you have it, but it can't help you cast your commander. Replace all of these with either basics or some other dual-type lands, preferably those that don't come into play tapped. Basics would probably work fine.

I don't think I like Door of Destinies here. You probably have to choose Fungus as your creature type, which doesn't help your saprolings. And you can't choose saprolings, because you don't "play" the saprolings. Cut it for another ramp spell, which you sorely need.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm not sure I like Resourceful Defense either. I do understand why you've included it, but it just doesn't seem to me that you'll get much use out of it, and it's activated ability is pretty costly. But if you like it, and it does a lot of work for you, then ignore my advice.

You are sorely lacking in card draw, too. You need to look at some slots to open up for more card draw spells. Black offers lots of great one-off spells, like Read the Bones, Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, and others.

That's all I got for now. I'll compare our lists more closely and let you know if I think of anything else.

Macaronigrill5150 on Born from Fire [Rivaz of the Claw]

2 months ago

Nice looks awesome! I never worked with dragons before but hopefully these could be useful. Ashes of the Fallen just in case you need to cast a non dragon from your graveyard, some card draw just in case Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, and Sign in Blood. Really all I got hope some of these help!

NV_1980 on Be'lakor tribal demon deck

2 months ago

This looks nice but I think you could add some more (cheap-to-cast) draw-resources to increase the speed of your deck somewhat. I would consider Ponder, Preordain, Mystic Remora, Faithless Looting, Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones. Please note that aside from Chaos Warp, the deck has nothing to deal with opposing enchantments. Therefore I'd really consider adding Feed the Swarm. Maybe also a Blast Zone and/or Nevinyrral's Disk, just in case.