Rhystic Study
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Big Apple Highlander Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Freeform Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
PreDH Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Rhystic Study

Enchantment

Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays .

RufusTheGrufus on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

4 weeks ago

Hey, Idoneity, fair enough and grain of salt taken; I'm just happy for the engagement and thought exercise(s)!

I think you and I have fairly similar deckbuilding philosophies; and for that reason I think I'd agree that Fertile Ground is definitely not optimal, it is sweet Anikthea tech though. And I think we’d both also agree that it's also not just stand alone card value, but also deck synergy that factors into deckbuilding choices; especially for EDH.

Between Ajani's Chosen and Archon of Sun's Grace, I'd definitely agree that the archon is stronger. But, it seems like I value these cards much higher than you for this specific deck/build. Oftentimes I see Ajani's Chosen and Archon of Sun's Grace almost like backup/adjacent commanders to Anikthea. They're additional token generators that reward me for playing into the themes of the build, and offer an avenue to close out games either after my graveyard is wiped and/or before I get good targets in my graveyard for Anikthea's ability. They can and will get out of hand without Anikthea needing to be played, and can force opponents to need removal before I even utilize my commander; which can then be followed up by falling right back into the main gameplan with Anikthea. Sure, by themselves and without the context of the decklist, they aren't going to be doing much; but when they offer additional value for a majority of the plays being made with this list, I think they become a lot stronger of effects/includes.

I have similar opinions regarding Mirkwood Bats, Grim Guardian, and Bastion of Remembrance. Outside of pure game-ending combo packages, and B4+ decklists, I typically consider cards that I categorize as ‘Finishers’ as the cards that will win the game if you have already gotten your gameplan going. They're not cards that are supposed to end the game just by themselves, in my opinion, but more-so win the game once I’m already doing a lot, by capitalizing off of my deckbuilding choices. To that end, I would argue that adding the drain/ping effects like Mirkwood Bats and Grim Guardian are actually raising the power cap, relative to a more alpha strike-based gameplan, especially since they ping when my enchantment tokens ETB; which is why I started to transition them into the list. Unfortunately Bastion of Remembrance is probably the weakest option since it triggers off creatures dying. But the fact that it's an enchantment, that also provides a token body on the side, has kept it in the list up till now. Ideally I'd have a much bigger suite of on-theme ETB drain effects; I'm just waiting for them to be printed! I'm trying to maximize the value I can get from the tokens produced by Anikthea ASAP; especially since exiling your own enchantments to make token copies is a fragile strategy. The pinger effects guarantee some sort of payoff that's headed towards winning the game without having to worry about attacks.

Palantir of Orthanc... I know I should cut it for something more on-theme, I do love this card though lol… If I were to cut it, I'd want to replace it with another piece of card advantage; this deck can be really resource hungry. Similar thoughts for Mindwrack Harpy: I'd want to replace it with a different piece of on-theme card advantage if anything. I actually really like Mindwrack Harpy and sure, relative to something like Rhystic Study or Esper Sentinel it's lower power; but it also puts in consistent work, especially in B3. I particularly like it because it typically offers card advantage during the same turn that it's played, and in my local meta having creatures with flying to block has been invaluable. I'm also a bit biased because I very rarely have had to worry about Mindwrack Harpy giving my playgroup card advantage as well, because up until recently I've primarily been the only one capitalizing off of my graveyard; and there is a good number of decks in my playgroup that care about topdeck manipulation so milling everyone has been almost all upside for me (we will see what the future holds since graveyard synergies are starting to become more common in my meta). In my experience Mindwrack Harpy has also gotten a disproportionate amount of removal thrown at it in my playgroup, so it also acts as a lightning rod to draw removal away from key pieces.

I think I'm going to hold off on adding Familiar Ground to the formal decklist right this second, but I am going to swap it in for Flowering of the White Tree and do a bunch of playtesting in the meantime! Thank you again for taking the time and energy to check out the decklist and offer your insight, I appreciate it!

clayperce on 1st commander deck

1 month ago

First: Welcome to Commander!

Second: I recommend starting a thread over in the Commander Deck Help Forum, asking for help.

OK, now for some thoughts ...

  • There's no subtle way to say this, so I'll just say it: I'm pretty sure your game shop is WAY more interested in selling you pricey cards than in helping you develop as a new Commander player. Urza, Lord High Artificer, Cyclonic Rift, Mystical Tutor, and Rhystic Study are all amazing cards, but they're called "Game Changers" for a reason: They will totally warp the game if you play them and--more importantly--they will TOTALLY mark you as a competitive player to the other players on the table ... and if you're not prepared for that, you'll be pummeled. Urza, in particular, is one of the best Commanders in the game (until recently he wasn't even allowed as a Commander in Brackets 1 or 2), and I would NEVER recommend him as a Commander to someone who describes themselves as "not a very competitive person". Worse though, while Scalding Tarn is a great card in any deck with Red, there's absolutely no reason to run it in a Mono-Blue deck.
  • When asking for help, it's a good idea to state what kind of a budget you're on. You've got some pricey pieces, but maybe you want to keep the price down on the rest of the cards? Or not ... either way is totally cool, it's just about getting recommendations that will be the most helpful.
  • When first starting out, I totally recommend checking out other decks ... you can ask questions of the authors, and playtest them to see what works for you ... it won't be long and you'll be helping out other people! Here are some Urza decks that people have been working on recently and here are the top-rated Urza decks on the site.
  • All that said, if I wanted to play an Urza Deck, I'd probably start with something like this: Urza Starter Pack.

Good luck (and good skill!) with Urza and again: Welcome to Commander!
Cheers!

Makin.Bacon.Pancakes on Shrines (Hondens and Sanctums)

1 month ago

DemonDragonJ on Unbalanced Cycles in MtG

1 month ago

The majority of cycles of cards in this games are at least somewhat balanced, but there are some cycles that are rather unbalanced, where one or two cards are noticeably (and often hilariously) over- or underpowered compared to the other cards, so I would like to discuss some of those cycles, in this thread.

One of the very first cycles in the game, the original boon cycle, was hilariously unbalanced, with Ancestral Recall being significantly more powerful than were the other cards in that cycle, Healing Salve being easily the weakest, and the other three members being between them in terms of power; Lightning Bolt remains a staple to this day, but Giant Growth and Dark Ritualfoil are much more niche cards, today, due to power creep. Since that cycle was one of the first cycles in the game, I believe that players can forgive WotC for not being able to balance the cards in it.

Another unbalanced cycle is the avatar cycle from Prophecy, in which Avatar of Woe is clearly the most powerful, while Avatar of Will is the weakest, with the other three being between them in power.

Another great example is that the majority of the "rhystic" cards are fairly weak, but Rhystic Study is extremely powerful, so I wonder what the designers were thinking when they made those cards.

One of my personal favorites is how the lieges from Eventide (i.e., Balefire Liege, Deathbringer Liege, and so forth) are blatantly superior to the lieges from Shadowmoor (i.e., Ashenmoor Liege, Boartusk Liege, and so forth), and I am very displeased at the disparity between the allied-colored and enemy-colored lieges.

What does everyone else say, about this? What are some of your favorite examples of unbalanced cycles in Magic: the Gathering? I certainly am eager to hear your thoughts, on this matter!

Venum on Tappy Mill 2.1 (Phenax EDH)

1 month ago

Happy to see another Phenax deck enjoyer.

May I suggest Psychic Corrosion, it's just too great with Rhystic Study / Mystic Remora to not have it.

Unstoppable Plan could also be a game finisher since you can tap your creature twice per turn for additionnal mill, wink wink Tree of Perdition .

Mortivore is also a great Creature for Mill deck AND you can regenerate when it dies.

DemonDragonJ on Patriotic Pride

2 months ago

I have replaced Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, and Keranos, God of Storms with Frostcliff Siege, Myrel, Shield of Argive, and Thassa, God of the Sea, because, as great as the existing cards were, I feel that the newer cards better suit the theme of this deck.

InvalidUsernamePleaseTryAgain on Possible Free Dinosaurs?? Yes PLEASE

2 months ago

clayperce me personally, because I don't have a job yet I don't have an exact budget. I think the most I might be willing to spend on lands would be ~$150-$175. I already know the deck is gonna be pricey due to Rhystic Study but nonetheless I think it would be an awesome deck and I also mainly wanted to share my idea for free creatures that are beefy

InvalidUsernamePleaseTryAgain on Possible Free Dinosaurs?? Yes PLEASE

2 months ago

legendofa Love the reccommendations. me personally, I only own Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Cultivator Colossus, Peer into the Abyss, Progenitus, A Realm Reborn, and Chromatic Lantern. I will be buying the rest of the cards whenever I'm able to, and as long as the cards aren't too expensive (ahemmm Rhystic Study) then I would definitely add them in. also I think just adding in first of Suns and still keeping in the Jodah, Archmage Eternal might be good but I use Morophon, the Boundless as the commander so I have a 2 in 50 chance to get the dinos to be free. later today I'm going to get the name of all the bi-tri lands that I have and find out what ones of those are better for the mana base

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