Rootborn Defenses

Instant

Populate. Creatures you control are indestructible this turn. (To populate, create a token that's a copy of a creature token you control.)

Discussion (51)

Tzefick on Ability challenge

1 day ago

I see PIayswithFlRE had a very similar idea to what I had in mind.

The mechanic Show

The first thing that came to mind with Extract is something to do with extracting information, which is very black-blue in origin. However seeing as we just had Despair, which was very black inspired, I wanted to go a new route, and thought exactly of the military term extraction; to get personnel out of an area.

Feedback on PlayswithFIRE Show

Although PIayswithFlRE went with the combat route, which is both an interesting take but also a very strange mechanic.

Removing a permanent from combat, such as a planeswalker, is not really something you can do under the current rule set. You can remove attacking creatures from combat and in certain abilities blocking creatures, but that's where it stops. Planeswalkers are not actively in combat and is merely a target for damage. By this mechanic's definition, you could essentially sideline it with removing yourself from combat (and thus any harm). I know this says permanent and thus cannot select yourself but the idea is the same.

As such I think I would have to advice that the mechanic be changed to only target creatures.

---

Anyway, onto my suggested mechanic:

It's kind of a combined mechanic, where one is setup and the other is payoff. It will be featured mainly on creatures but occasionally also on instants/sorceries. It will be mainly in white with a secondary group in green and in red.

The setup:

When ~ is returned from the battlefield to your hand, gain effect.

The "payoff":

Extract cost - Whenever a nonland permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may cast ~ for its extract cost. If you do the targeted permanent becomes marked for extraction.

When ~ enters the battlefield (/spell resolves), return all permanents marked for extraction you control to their owner's hand. If you control no permanents marked for extraction, you may return a nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand.

The setup can obviously be utilized with other bounce effects, such as Cunning Evasion to gain the actual payoff, and the Extract cards can be used against any sort of targeting or just to self-bounce nonland permanents.

The idea is that Extract can be a resource generator by protecting permanents you would otherwise perhaps lose and because the Extract cost is an alternate cost, it could be lower than the card's printed cost and thus be a tempo-trade in addition to being a counter to spot removal.

There's an obvious issue in the Extract cards because they are based on a "Gotcha!"-moment, which in general is a bad player experience. However I don't think the mechanic is tempo-wise powerful enough to warrant much of an issue against anything but control decks and to a certain degree tempo decks. It's an alternate way to provide white with some pseudo card advantage. It's basically Whitemane Lion , the mechanic.

White has traditionally had different ways to protect themselves and things they control. Rebuff the Wicked , Dawn Charm , Rootborn Defenses or Teferi's Protection .

The cards Show

Deft Platoon

Creature - Soldier (Uncommon)

Extract - Whenever a nonland permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may cast Deft Platoon for its Extract cost. If you do, the targeted permanent becomes marked for extraction.

When Deft Platoon enters the battlefield, return all permanents marked for extraction you control to their owner's hand. If you control no permanents marked for extraction, you may return a nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand.

3/3

---

Shedale Runner

Creature - Human Cleric (Common)

Extract - Whenever a nonland permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may cast Shedale Runner for its Extract cost. If you do, the targeted permanent becomes marked for extraction.

When Shedale Runner enters the battlefield, return all permanents marked for extraction you control to their owner's hand. If you control no permanents marked for extraction, you may return a nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand.

2/1

---

Shedale Agents

Creature - Human Soldier (Rare)

First strike

Extract

When Shedale Agents enters the battlefield, return all permanents marked for extraction you control to their owner's hand. If you control no permanents marked for extraction, you may return a nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand.

2/2

---

Armored Caravan

Creature - Human (Uncommon)

Extract - Whenever a nonland permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may cast Armored Caravan for its Extract cost. If you do, the targeted permanent becomes marked for extraction.

When Armored Caravan enters the battlefield, return all permanents marked for extraction you control to their owner's hand. If you control no permanents marked for extraction, you may return a nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand.

2/4

---

Extraction Mage

Creature - Human Wizard (Rare)

Extract

When Extraction Mage enters the battlefield, return all permanents marked for extraction you control to their owner's hand. If you control no permanents marked for extraction, you may return a nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand.

3/2

---

Engulfing Mists

Instant (Uncommon)

Return a creature you control to its owner's hand. Draw a card.

---

Mistcovered Reinforcements

Sorcery (Common)

Extract - Whenever a nonland permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may cast Mistcovered Reinforcements for its Extract cost. If you do, the targeted permanent becomes marked for extraction.

Create two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens.

If Mistcovered Reinforcements was cast for its Extract cost, return all permanents marked for extraction you control.

---

Distracting Mistmage

Creature - Human Wizard (Common)

When Distracting Mistmage is returned to your hand from the battlefield, create two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens.

2/2

---

Shedale Scout

Creature - Human (Uncommon)

Whenever Shedale Scout deals combat damage to an opponent, you may return it to its owner's hand.

When Shedale Scout is returned to your hand from the battlefield, draw a card.

1/2

---

Tinkering Gadgeteer

Creature - Human Artificer (Rare)

When Tinkering Gadgeteer enters the battlefield, create 2 1/1 colorless artifact Thopters with flying.

Creatures you control get +1/+0.

2/2

Patdypat on Tokens Galore *WIP Need Help*

6 days ago

You are probably missing the Top End token producers like Avenger of Zendikar or Tendershoot Dryad . Another alternative is Mycoloth to get a ton of tokens on the field. Another thing would be to include stuff that ends the game in one swing. You have Ojutai that grows bigger and bigger why not include a Overwhelming Stampede to give all your tokens his power and toughness and trample. Another thing would be Beastmaster Ascension or End-Raze Forerunners . A more hated variant of this would be Triumph of the Hordes .

Protection is also needed so i would include Heroic Intervention Rootborn Defenses that save your board the most scary thing for a token deck: Board Wipes. Asceticism and Privileged Position saves you spot removal trouble. If you don't like enchantments Archetype of Endurance is an alternative.

Card Draw should also not be neglected. I would play around your commanders and your win conditions. Ojutai gets huge pretty quickly so stuff like Rishkar's Expertise and Soul's Majesty or Garruk, Primal Hunter should give you the explosiveness to draw into your win conditions. Another thing to consider would be Huatli, Radiant Champion , easily the best Planeswalker you can put into a token deck and draws you cards for every creature that enters the battlefield. Exactly what we want for deck like this.

I also would cut Helm of the Host and rather play Bramble Sovereign cause helm is really scary and fragile too. You can easily waste 2 turns paying 9 mana only for your creature you want to equip it too being destroyed. Another thing i see is Entreat the Angels as a problem. It is a super good card but you have not much top of the library manipulation so i would cut it for Divine Visitation , does exactly what you want create 4/4 angels for every token you make. Also another thing to include and that is easily on of the best win condition if it hits turn 2 is Luminarch Ascension .

That's all for now from me, if you have any more questions just hit me up with them!

king-saproling on Eggs!

4 weeks ago

Looks good! Betrothed of Fire and Evolutionary Leap are other sac outlets to consider. A Lotus Petal could help you get there even faster. Also I'm thinking low-cost populate cards like Druid's Deliverance , Sundering Growth , Wake the Reflections , and Rootborn Defenses are useful for getting the second egg quickly, and are better than Bracers, Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession, and Doubling Season given the populate cards have secondary effects and cost less.

superhuman21 on Jank Atraxa FTW

4 weeks ago

Ok. So depending entirely on YOUR meta, I'm not a fan of a bunch of the lands. You have 4-5 of the 'pay 2life or it ETBs tapped'. That's 8-10 life. Sure you got lifelink on a bunch of guys, but cmdr isn't guaranteed. I'd consider swapping those out, unless it was purely because you have those already. Atraxa has 4/5 mtg colors, I'd run the Exotic Orchard as stats say your opp will likely be running 2-4 colors, meaning you'll have 1-3 colors in common min.
Your utility lands like the Bastion and Gavony are great choices for this. On the same related note check if you have a Coat of Arms , tribal almost demands you run this card and it can get OP real quick. I ran a Sigarda/human tribal and it wasn't uncommon to have 30 tokens with 30/30ea. They'll still die laughably to a disk or other similar wipe, but meh: 30x 30/30s.

• Assess that Darksteel Plate. I know it is great if you're running 1 fatty, but you should have a s$^&-ton of tokens. I'd consider swapping it for others.


• You got a lot of low CMC instants, but no Isochron Scepter . Consider running this, or sideboarding it. It explains itself.


• The Gilded Lotus. Replace that. Thran Dynamo , Lotus Vale would be my ideas. That or just playtest without another mana rock


• Assess the usefulness of that jellyfish. It seems cumbersome.


• Consider Lord of Extinction . I know Tormod and Dakmor et al can vaporize him with graveyard hate, but otherwise he's pretty solid. Give him trample/first/death/lifelink and ppl will hate you.


• Misc Suggestions: Odric, Master Tactician , Plaguemaw Beast , Anointed Procession , Perilous Forays , Cloudshift , Reclaim , Rootborn Defenses ...Finally EDH staples to assess The Disk, Panharmonicon , Strionic Resonator , Silence , Doom Blade / Murder


• ONE CARD TO ADD NO MATTER WHAT: Primal Vigor . Self-explanatory.

Well...That is all I got at the moment. You're really going heavy tokens so that's fine, just be sure to stay focused and not trying too many different things. :)

maxmcnugget on Pokémon Breeder - Atla Palani, Nest Tender (EDH)

1 month ago

Love the build. Without prior knowledge, I went through my collection to put together my Atla deck, and it was frighteningly similar. It was scary. I just have few more casual cards like Rootborn Defenses , will probably replace it with Boros Charm when I find one and Nesting Dragon from C18 which I love.

rkjunior Mana Crypt seems like it would be welcome in this deck, but there is always the budget barrier for that card. As for Mana Vault and or Grim Monolith I dont really thing that they would be that good since they do not really ramp you to cast Atla earlier. But Mana Vault I feel may still be worth it to test out.

awalloftext on Marisi, C-C-C-C-Coil Breaker

1 month ago

Solid list! Good ramp, and as about resilient as you could be in a Naya deck. If you really, really wanted more wrath protection there's Dauntless Escort , but that's probably overkill (and you'd have to cut a better hate bear-ish creature for it). Rootborn Defenses may be better though - and also tutorable with Sunforger. On the other hand, honestly, I wish I had another Heroic Intervention for Gahiji, but they're getting pretty pricey now...

I think you should absolutely find room for Soltari Visionary . Maybe also Soltari Champion - but definitely Visionary.

I'm not 100% sold on Sunny Elspeth - great card to be sure, but how often are you using that minus ability when it kills your commander? If you're just looking for more swarm in white, there's also God-Eternal Oketra , Geist-Honored Monk , Hero of Bladehold , Brimaz, King of Oreskos , or even Custodi Soulbinders !

I'm curious how Luminarch Ascension works out for you. I can "see" the ceiling for it - you lock everyone out with goads and are free to add counters, seems good. However, if you play it too early you become a huge target.

Sidar Kondo is some sick tech here.

Great list! Very well crafted.

jotape42p on Sigarda Humans and Clues

1 month ago

Hmm, maybe the Gideon would be a good idea indeed... (same kind of buffs ultimately, only that Gideon can do it more times with the game)

I think for your populate deck the Rootborn Defenses would make more sense than Unbreakable Formation since the sinergy is better, as for my deck Unbreakable Formation would make more sense because i prioiritize buffs on all creatures rather than populating, mainly because tokens are a secondary mechanic of the deck.

THLombax on Sigarda Humans and Clues

1 month ago

I would say your Gideon Planeswalker but that's just because in my pod they don't last long.

I do have a question for you. I've been mulling over switching Unbreakable Formation for Rootborn Defenses .

What are your thoughts?