Sage's Row Denizen
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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
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Sage's Row Denizen

Creature — Vedalken Wizard

Whenever another blue creature enters the battlefield under your control, target player puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.

KongMing on Wizard101 | FREE Download | Play Now!

1 year ago

Great question Frostfire524. There are a couple infinite combos (and a few power combos/cards) that win you the game.

Galecaster Colossus can be enough to lock opponents (even multiple opponents) out of the game with mass bounce. If someone tries to remove it, counterspell.

Cyclonic Rift is in a similar boat, and can be retrieved from the graveyard by cards like Archaeomancer and Mystic Sanctuary. Clone Legion is another great card that can make the game one-sided.

Stormtide Leviathan is a big beater that can finish games if opponents have been swinging at each other a bit and don't have many fliers. Just yesterday I used Rite of Replication on the Stormtide the turn after casting it - six 8/8s with Islandwalk are pretty good at winning the game.

Ultimately though, the goal for the deck is to hold off the opponents until it is ready to draw/mill itself out and win. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Laboratory Maniac allow you to win when you deck yourself. Those are obvious, how do you get there? We have a few options.

First, the mill. This deck has a LOT of scry, but not much shuffle. That is a very intentional design decision. You want to remember what your bottom card is at all times, because the spell Tunnel Vision will let you throw all the rest of your library into your graveyard, leaving only that card on top. So you go from having 70-80 cards in library to 1.

This strategy can also target the opponent. Our spells Hinder, Spell Crumple, and Vendilion Clique all let us put cards on the bottom of an opponent's library. Now we can target them with Tunnel Vision! Much fun ensues.

Now for drawing yourself out. This is accomplished through infinite bounce triggers. The card Naru Meha, Master Wizard goes infinite with bounce spells like Ghostly Flicker, Freed from the Real, Displace, and Illusionist's Stratagem. This can let you bounce another Wizard that lets you draw cards, or use other output cards like Kindred Discovery or Sage's Row Denizen to knock out libraries. There's lot of others combos too, like being able to use Naru Meha and Ghostly Flicker with Sunscorched Desert to ping opponents to death.

TawfulEvil on Venture Deeper

2 years ago

Thanks for commenting on my deck! This is my first time posting one.

The spells may be a little inefficient, but I chose them mostly for how they work together. I use the Oculus, Unsummon, and Thought Collapse to hold back whatever I can, while I use the Kraken's Eye to try to keep my life total high enough that I don't promptly die if something has trample. (My little brother favors green creatures)

The Sage's Row Denizen and the Murmuring Mystic both have abilities to help the Merfolk Secretkeeper, netting me chump tokens and a bit more mill when it enters.

Fractured Sanity is an excellent idea! I don't believe I've seen that card. Maybe I'd replace it for the Startled Awake  Flip cards?

The creatures conundrum is interesting to me though. I don't play super competetively, but I use the creatures for the mill, both when they enter and when they die. I actually do have Ruin Crab, but the Merfolk Secretkeeper is critical to the deck in my opinion, with it's adventures and re-entering the field.

Profane Memento... I Love It!!! Why have I never seen this beautiful evil creation!!! I may need 20 of them. Well not twenty, but definitely replacing the Kraken's Eye.

It does not have much removal, which I have encountered as a problem before. I would like to keep it mono-blue though if possible. I've mostly just handled threats through Unsummon-ing massive attacking threats, and through Thought Collapse-ing any main combo starters I see. I would love suggestions though, especially blue ones.

You're probably correct with the mana curve though... I'm just unlucky about having lands when I need them, so in frustration, I probably put in to many... Cutting back some lands is a wise suggestion, thanks.

The three costs I actually haven't had a problem with. (Probably because of the extra lands) I could maybe pack a couple of Mind Sculpts if I had to, but for my two cost department I simply wait for a Murmuring Mystic before I cast Winged Words. Unless I feel I have to of course!

TheoryCrafter on Mill, suggestions are welcome :)

2 years ago

In my first FNM tournament I played a Modern Dimir Deck with a similar mill or kill strategy. Only I also had Sage's Row Denizen as an extra mill trigger. This was when Tarkir was first coming out, so I had enough foresight to add a couple of Bojuka Bogs to my deck to handle delve.

I went 1-3 in the tournament, but 2 of the losses were in 3 games and the one where I was swept I got my opponent down to 6 or fewer cards each time before I lost. Between getting my opponents to zero cards and zero life the victory share was half. It wasn't a competitive deck, but it was fun the whole time.

Since then the number of cards giving players hexproof have doubled, abilities such as Delirium and Escape have come into existence, and Delve and Flashback have gotten more cards printed. This could cause your opponent to actually get stronger as the game goes on.

You did good picking cards that don't target opponents, but depending on your opponents' graveyards to pump your creatures means your creatures' power and toughness, depending on the deck you face, will end up in a constant state of flux. My suggestion is to get two more copies of Grafdigger's Cage and put them into your main board.

Also, you may want to consider counter spells to protect your pieces from opponents.

Consuming Aberration should be seen as a late game finisher, so you can get away with removing a copy. If you insist on needing card advantage, then Aqueous Form can make your creatures unblockable and give you scry.

I also suggest considering you add copies of Hedron Crab. Supporting your crabs with Fabled Passage and Terramorphic Expanse will help to make the deck resistant to cards that will allow your opponents to get nonbasic lands out of your deck.

I hope this helps. Thank you for reading me out. Happy Hunting!

drinkthewave on Lover of Shiny Things [A Primer]

2 years ago

Nice work so far! I’ve been looking at a more combo plan, with Defense of the Heart or Pod effects that should put 2 exile target creature effects on board to create a loop with Lagrella. From there I’m looking for creatures that check etbs that end the game. There’s Sage's Row Denizen, Radiant Solar, Suture Priest, Altar of the Brood. Of course there are lots of infinite life creatures but that doesn’t win you the game. The other slots are probably going to be value pieces and interaction, seeing as we’re going for a creature combo win green’s creature tutors should get us there. White’s stax should slow the faster decks, while blue gives us necessary protection. One big problem is the lack of card advantage in the command zone so we’ll have to dedicate more slots for engines.

Kazierts on Pushing Poison

2 years ago

After reading your comment taking another look at your deck, I realized it has 70 cards. While, as I said, I don't intend to change your deckbuilding style, you should basically never go above 60 cards, unless your deck runs Yorion, Sky Nomad or Battle of Wits.

Your deckbuilding guidelines are quite interesting. Here's a few things I'd like to mention regarding them:

  • First, a compliment so it doesn't like I'm just criticizing everything. What you mentioned about legendary creatures is basically the correct way to play with them, in most cases. Too many can brick you and too few makes them hard to draw.

  • While, in some cases, it's good a backup windocondition, that does not apply to every archetype, Infect included. Because of the Infect keyword, the literally doesn't care about the opponent's life total. So, when you suddenly try to change to hit their life total with one or two creatures that don't have Infect, you're basically starting everything from scratch in the middle of a game. This goes into my next point which is your fear of hate cards.

  • I completely understand some cards that can shut your deck down are scary, but I feel like you're letting your fear get in the way of your deck. I'll use my deck as example. My manabase is almost completely made of nonbasic lands, yet Blood Moon doesn't scare me. Why? I have Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek. If that's not enough, then I also have Ratchet Bomb in my sideboard. Melira, Sylvok Outcast? Fatal Push, Damnfoil, Collective Brutality and Liliana of the Veil all deal with it. My point is there multiple ways to deal with threats that don't force you into an extremely narrow path. Also, if you're playing Modern, no one will use Back to Basicsfoil because it's not legal. This also goes into my next point, which is the mana effiency.

  • Despite you saying you like to be mana effienct, a lot of cards here aren't. As I mentioned, some of them basically do nothing. Some actually do, but are overcoste, even in you examples. Sage's Row Denizen is very inefficient because mill decks like to turbo mill (which is something I personally don't like). This means the best mill creatures are Ruin Crab and Hedron Crab. When we come fo poisoning opponents, that's why Hand of the Praetors sees basically zero play outside of commander. Usually people just cast a Glistener Elf turn 1 and a Scale Up turn 2. Also, you're looking at the ratio, but not the usefulness of the creature. Sure, Cystbearer costs the same, manawise, as a Rot Wolf, but is incredibly worse.

If you want to follow this path of winning bast cast infect creatures with the hand on the field, then:

I understand if the above mentioned are a bit above your budget. A lot of these Infect cards haven't had a reprint yet.

I love when people go for nonstandard builds of decks. I hope you cam improve this without sacrificing too much of your own style.

TheoryCrafter on Pushing Poison

2 years ago

Wow, thank you for sharing your input.

My deckbuilding style usually comes down to these rules:

-I try to have 2 workable strategies so if My deck takes a hit it's not immediately game over.

-If the average mana costs of the spell cards comes to above 3, the spell/land ratio is 3:2. If I can get it below 3 then the ratio is 2:1. The latter is what I've been aiming for per my deck description.

-I try to keep at least half my lands basic so that if an opponent plays Back to Basics or Blood Moon it won't result in an immediate scoop. If I'm running 3 or more colors in a deck, I'll usually run most if not all my red producing lands as nonbasics to render Blood Moon less effective. To determine how many of what lands that produce one mana I use basic Algebra and usually get close what mana calculators say.

-Because one of my biggest weaknesses in deckbuilding is a difficulty to "kill my darlings" if I can run lands with abilities that can keep spaces open for other cards. Boseiju, Who Endures and Inkmoth Nexus would likely make this deck were it not for their expense.

-I go by mana efficiency. Essentially if I'm using decktypes like Burn or Mill, I'll try to have at least 1 damage caused or 1 card milled for each one mana spent unless that card has an ability that is reusable. Thus I might use a card like Sage's Row Denizen for mill, but not necessarily a card like Fireball for burn if I have other options available. Thus when casting to give opponents poison I have to spend as little mana as possible, even if the 1:1 ratio goal is impractical if not impossible.

-Sometimes I'll use three copies of a inexpensive card manawise like Soulfire Grand Master and two copies of an expensive one like Radiant Scrollwielder that have some of the same effects but different power levels as a means to maximize without damaging my mana curve.

-Unless the card is absolutely vital to a deck, like Masako the Humorless would be in an Azorius advisor deck, I won't run more than two copies of a Legendary Creature card.

Kazierts, I'm not 100% sure yet I want to move into the standard way infect is played, but however I decide to score your suggestions you deserve kudos for their practicality for the way my deck is currently built. If you have ideas on how to balance standard infect strategy and casting to Poison they are welcome.

lespaul977 on

2 years ago

TheoryCrafter, thanks for stopping by! Based on the conversation I had with Balaam__, Essence Flux is definitely going to come out. I don’t currently have another Visions of Beyond or Geralf's Mindcrusher, but I’ll check my local game store and see what I can find.

I did not know about Sage's Row Denizen, but it looks awesome. I’ll try to get my hands on some.

Thank you so much for your recommendations! I appreciate your help!

TheoryCrafter on

2 years ago

When I build mill decks I try to make it to where 1 card is milled for every one mana spent unless the milling ability is repeatable. The cards I'd recommend removing are Essence Flux for another Visions Beyond and Geralf's Mindcrusher because it mills 5 cards for six mana spent on a one time trigger.

With all the creatures in your deck have you considered Sage's Row Denizen? This would be a good supplement to your deck.

I hope this helps. Thank you for reading me out. Happy Hunting!

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