See the Unwritten

Sorcery

Reveal the top eight cards of your library. You may put a creature card from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest into your graveyard.

Ferocious — If you control a creature with power 4 or greater, you may put two creature cards onto the battlefield instead of one.

Discussion (50)

KindredDiscovery on Mayael EDH Primer

1 week ago

@bankrupt_on_selling I've used Xenagos, God of Revels in the past, and it was always a good card. I swapped it out for Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded recently and I've been liking that better. Haste is so important that it could be correct to run both.

I'm much more tepid on See the Unwritten and Selvala's Stampede. They seem awfully high variance, and I think I'd rather run tutors in their place. I'm sure they're fun when they work though - just not my style.

Scroll Rack is absolutely great, and it was with great reluctance that I took it out of the deck a while back. I was lacking in card advantage engines, and Lifecrafter's Bestiary offered both card advantage and filtering. It may well find its way back in, but it waits on the sidelines for now.

bankrupt_on_selling on Mayael EDH Primer

1 week ago

What about the cards Xenagos, God of Revels, See the Unwritten, Selvala's Stampede or Scroll Rack?

triproberts12 on Midrange in EDH - Curves, ...

2 months ago

Sounds like a job for Insurrection.

It also kinda looks like you're trying to build a combo deck, what with the Congregation at Dawn and specific 3 creatures you want out, in which case Genesis Wave, Genesis Hydra, Lurking Predators, Kamahl's Druidic Vow, Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire, See the Unwritten, Atla Palani, Nest Tender, Aid from the Cowl, Warp World, Divergent Transformations, Indomitable Creativity, Reality Scramble, and Genesis Storm are your options for cheating out multiple creatures off the top of your deck. You'd then want to shore up your tutors (not having blue hurts here, but black is king) to be able to consistently grab Congregation at Dawn.

The other option (or perhaps in addition to) is to go reanimator. Buried Alive+Balthor the Defiled, Champion of Stray Souls, All Hallow's Eve, Immortal Servitude, Pyrrhic Revival, or Rise of the Dark Realms.

Tutors can serve each plan equally, and it keeps the deck from doing the same thing every time, which is good for casual play. Also, if you throw in Footbottom Feast, Gravepurge, Forever Young, and/or Bone Harvest, Buried Alive interacts with Genesis Wave and friends.

TypicalTimmy on User Introductions

3 months ago

Guess I'll kick things off, unless I get ninja'd lol.

• Favorite Formats: Modern, EDH, trying to get into Pauper, Two-headed Giant. I also have a strong passion for Oathbreaker and Archenemy, despite not being "official formats". Out of all of them, I'd say Oathbreaker is perhaps my favorite with Archenemy being my second favorite.

• Favorite Deck: Oh man, there's too many to choose from. I'd have to say my #1 favorite deck in Modern is my Rakdos Minotaur deck. It's lost to the aether somewhere on this site, but it's a Midrange Minotaur Tribal deck jam-packed with like ~18 instant-speed removal spells. Believe it or not, I went up against a tournament winning Elf deck and smashed it to pieces. My opponent made the fatal flaw of sinking everything he had into Ezuri, Renegade Leader. After he tapped everything and put it all on the stack, I came in with a Terminate and killed it. With nothing but some 1/1s and 2/2s on the field, he reluctantly passed. I had only four Minotaur on the field against an army of Elves. I had Rageblood Shaman, Felhide Petrifier, Neheb, the Worthy and Kragma Warcaller. This looks like it's merely 8 power on the field, but with all abilities adding up it's actually a total of 27 power. With Trample. And Deathtouch. And First strike. And Haste. So, he obviously did not block nearly enough and I won. Even if he had, I have Savage Beating in the deck for a reason ;).

As for EDH, my current favorite deck is my Lathliss' Brood deck. This thing is just a powerhouse of fun. The deck's description needs to be updated, but as of now the deck list itself is complete. I find it works very well the way it is. And yes, it can win on turn 6. Not take out one opponent. I mean take out all three of them, on turn 6.

As for Oathbreaker, by large my favorite deck is my exceptionally broken Kiora's Eternity - Dual Infinity, and Beyond!!. Being able to literally produce both infinite mana and infinite turns, on turn 4, is astounding. I'll need to fit Nyxbloom Ancient into the mix now ;) Because if you're going to Min-Max a deck, you gotta do it properly ;D

• Favorite Color: - It's fast, it's powerful, and it doesn't care about you or your feelings. Second is green, followed by black, than white, than blue. Sorry blue players, but I don't have the time nor the patience to be responsive. If I am sitting there with zero cards in my hand and everything is turned sideways, I'm a very happy Timmy. :3

• Favorite Guild: RAKDOS - also Gruul. If I am feeling midrangey, I play Rakdos. If I'm feeling stompy, I play Gruul. Oddly enough I have a very strong affinity for Orzhov. I think it's just a nice step into a different style. I love playing with life totals and all. Again, zero love for blue. Sowwie not sowwie.

• Favorite Shard: Okay, so you're going to hate me for saying this but it's... Esper. I KNOW RIGHT?! For some reason, I absolutely LOVE how Esper playes. It's... I don't know. I think it's because since I am pulled into three colors, I need to manage resources better. I can't dedicate an entire deck to just smashing face or blowing stuff up. I could, but I think that having a third color pushes me out of my comfort zone and I find genuine solace in Esper's manipulation of the entire game. I know, it's very weird. This is the one and only time I play blue. Sometimes I'll try for something like Izzet or Temur, but the only one I find comes natural is Esper.

• Favorite Wedge: I've always held a strong passion for Mardu, but I can never seem to make it work. One of these days I will, and it'll be my next passion project. Until then, Mardu, you're a love on the other side of the world. I think what I love the most about Mardu is, as weird as it will sound, it's not Jund. You'd think Jund is just Rakdos and Gruul combined, but in reality the way it plays, it's more Golgari and Gruul combined. I'm not really into graveyard interactions, and so I feel I can't play Jund properly. I always feel out of my element stepping into a Jund deck. But Mardu is so straight forward; Turn sideways and wrath.

• Card that best represents you: I think, out of all of Magic, there is one card that truly sings to me and it's Xenagos, the Reveler. First of all, I love Planeswalkers. Secondly, I love Gruul. Thirdly, I love Theros. But also the abilities. +1 for stupid amounts of mana to sink into stupid amounts of spells and abilities? Thank you yes please. Then a free hasty boi for 0? Sure why the heck not?? That last -7 is great, too! It's effectively See the Unwritten on a stick but better! :D

• Hobbies Outside of Magic: Work. Work. Work. Play with my cat. Sleep. Also work. I work a lot. I just accepted a position as a production supervisor for a company coming to America. I can't get into specifics here, but effectively what's going on is this is a Danish company that has been in business for 30+ years. They are opening up shop in America and built their very first plant last year in the town next to mine. They are in the process of building an entire nation-wide Division, and have asked me to be a production supervisor. I'm 30 years old. So if I work toward retirement goals, that's 35+ years with this company, literally on the ground floor of aggressive expansion. Nowhere to go but up.

• Tell us about your life outside of TappedOut: As I just stated, I work a lot of hours. Currently about 50 - 60 a week. Thank God I'm hourly, right?? Haha but joking aside, I also support my disabled mother. My dad passed in 2007, we lost our house in the crash of 2008, and my mom was diagnosed with Lupus in 2010. Lupus is a disease where your immune system attacks your body. It starts with your joints, but it spreads to organs and the nervous system. Unfortunately there is no cure that we know of today. The best course is to put her on medication to suppress the immune system, which means she is constantly sick and battling illness. She almost passed away in 2017 when a simple head cold turned into bronchitis and then pneumonia. The virus moved into her kidneys where it caused massive damage and shut them down. She was in the ICU for literally a full three weeks, and her vitals crashed twice. She is doing much better now, but unfortunately Lupus will only make her health worse. It's sort of like Hospice. The unfortunate reality is that if she doesn't pass from something in the meantime, such as a car accident, Lupus will take her life. It may be 10 or 20 years from now, but it will happen. I believe she has started the early stages of alzheimer's / dementia as it spreads to and attacks her brain. She will "remember" conversations that never happened, she will forget things almost immediately, and she will hear sounds or see flashes of light that aren't there. She is 54 years old. So, the vast majority of my life is going to work, then coming home to take care of her. I was at Walgreens buying her medication when I posted this thread, and now I'm at home about to start cleaning as I type this reply. Such is my life.

• How did you come up with your username? I actually had an account before this one, under the username MinotaurtheMatador, named after my favorite tribe; Minotaurs. I made a second account named Catalog9000, which I used as an online database for the cards I had. As my collection grew, the whole "cataloging" thing came harder to do and I consolidated both accounts into one. Once I upgraded, I switched to TypicalTimmy, because that's who I am as a player. I get excited over big stupid cards and I love to play big stupid creatures. You know how Pelakka Wurm was a pushed bulk rare in Core 2019 and everyone hated it? I ran a playset of it in two different decks. ;)

• What first appealed to you about Magic? I'm honestly not sure. I actually hated Magic at first. Thought it was a stupid waste of time. Then again, I was an edgelord in high school, so go figure. What appeals to me now is the creative force behind deck building. I love the challenge of taking cards nobody uses and making it work. So yes, I play fringe decks. I love that this actually equates to an edge, because nobody knows what your deck will do since nobody plays it lol.

• Why is Magic important to you now? The game isn't so much as important to me as the community. I come onto TappedOut because it's like going onto Facebook. I have friends here, I can talk about cool ideas, I can express concerns, I can offer advice. I may not be the best user, nor the most experienced. Heck, I'm probably not even in the top half. But I play the game in a way others don't (fringe), which means I can see potential in cards that many others will overlook. It might not be the best advice, but it's certainly something many users have taken into consideration and used.

• What are your thoughts on the current metagame (any format)? I haven't kept up with metas in so long that I can't even tell you, anymore. I'm sorry.

• Are there any cards or strategies you feel overcentralize the metagame? Since I can't answer the prior, I can't answer this either. Again, I apologize.

• How do you deal with a dominant new deck, card, and/or player in your pod? 3/3. Can't answer. Sowwie.

• What is your approach to deckbuilding? For Modern, I look for about 3 - 5 cards that all interact extremely well together and run a gambit of 2 - 4 copies in a deck. Synergy above all else. In EDH, I look for up to three "types" of cards and comprise a list of around 20 of each, then hone from there. For example, in my Lathliss, Dragon Queen I have three basic functions: Ramp & cost reduction, Dragons, Burn. Each one works on their own, but they work together to create a tremendous force to reckon with. I use the Commander as a tool to kick the deck into overdrive, not as a crutch the deck must be centered around. If she's not out, it's okay I'm still pitching 4/4s and 5/5s with strong abilities and evasion in the air. If she is out, hot damn.

• Share with us some of your favorite decks by others on TappedOut you feel are underappreciated/underrated. I'll have to get back to this, sorry.

• Are there any future releases you’re looking forward to? Why or why not? IKORIA & THE COMMANDER SET

Heliogabale on Worth it or not?

4 months ago

None of the cards you mentioned in the second point seem important to this deck's mechanic from my point of view. I would concentrate on your first point and focus the build on your choice of beaters.

Cards I would include: - Rukh Egg and Dragon Egg for obvious reasons

• Lurking Predators as a fall-back if your cammander is taken out

• Tooth and Nail , See the Unwritten and Selvala's Stampede also work well with a deck packed with huge creatures

• Sylvan Library and Mirri's Guile to fix your topdeck

Hope this inspires you, looking forward to see the decklist you come up with!

FadingReality on Animar the biggest boi

5 months ago

Your deck's average CMC is a bit high (even for eldrazi). In addition, you have a low amount of ramp (although a fair amount of the ramp you do have is solid). The combination of high average CMC and low ramp can often result in a higher than average amount of games where the deck will not do anything productive for far too long. So first and foremost, we should find a way to lower the deck's average CMC while simultaneously increasing its ramp/mana acceleration. Secondly, we want to add more removal/disruption to the deck. Finally, we want to upgrade the average card quality. Doing these three things will DRASTICALLY improve this deck's competitiveness, speed, and power. Removal/disruption is crucial at every point of a commander game, but it is absolutely vital in the early turns of the game. This is even more true when talking about a slower deck. Being able to stop an opponent's explosive starts or protect yourself from early threats is very important. Removal allows slower decks to make it to late game where they can then take over and dominate. Animar is an incredibly powerful commander AND his CMC is very low. Casting him early provides you with an ever growing blocker/attacker that also helps you get to your bombs quicker so I think the commander choice here is an excellent one. His protection from white and black will also stonewall early aggro in those colors. So obviously I think this deck's first objective is to get Animar out ASAP. However, Animar is not invincible (although close) and he can also be countered and he is only one card (albiet one that you always have access to). So again, we need to find ways to increase early game pressure and/or protection. Below are a list of cards I'd suggest for each of those categories. I will not consider budget with my suggestions. Not all of my suggestions will be expensive tho. Although some of my suggestions are expensive cards, they will be the absolute best options for the things we are trying to improve. Also, you can always slowly acquire some of these cards over time. Even a $100 card can be acquired in 4 months without impacting your finances. You can set aside $25 bucks a month (or even every two weeks) and get a $100 card in 2-4 months. I will leave most of the swapping of cards up to you, but I will mention certain cards in your deck that I think should be directly swapped with one of my suggestions. Anyways, without further ado: my suggestions.

RAMP

Gaea's Cradle – This card is expensive af (probably my most expensive suggestion) but it is a staple in a lot of commander decks. Animar is one of those decks. Animar thrives off casting creatures and Animar decks generally have lots of creatures on their board. The other ridiculously amazing thing about this card (aside from being able to tap for ABSURD amounts of mana) is that it is a land and thus doesn't consume a precious deck slot.

Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt are monsters of acceleration and Tomb, like Gaea's Cradle, doesn't take up a deck slot. These two I wouldn't recommend as hard as Cradle and they do hurt you so I could see not including them without a certain amount of lifegain. Life doesn't matter that much in cEDH but in regular EDH life totals are usually quite important.

A fair amount of the one drop mana dorks. Your commander's colors will prevent you from being able to play Noble Hierarch , but you should definitely include Birds of Paradise and some combination of Elvish Mystic , Llanowar Elves , and Fyndhorn Elves . Sylvan Caryatid isn't a bad choice either. I persoanlly think Caryatid is better than Rattleclaw Mystic although I think the Rattleclaw is fine and probably shouldn't be cut. Many people believe artifacts are superior to mana dorks but this view isn't completely correct. Artifacts have two main strengths over dorks: they can tap the same turn you play them and they are (generally) harder to remove. In every other way however (barring specific strategies), mana dorks are better. They can chump block hits that would kill you, swing for damage, can be recurred much more easily than artifacts, and can be used as fodder for cards like Fauna Shaman and Survival of the Fittest . You can't feed a 1 mana artifact to those cards and tutor up an Ulamog but mana dorks let you do this. This is also only speaking generally. In certain decks (ESPECIALLY Animar) the payoff for running them is even greater. Paying 1 mana for a mana dork makes Animar grow even stronger and lets him discount more expensive creatures even harder. With Animar on the field, dorks effectively provide 2 mana. They raise the discount and tap for mana themselves. Animar with 3 lands and 3 dorks can let you cast something for 9 mana on turn 4! If one of those lands was Gaea's Cradle , it would allow 12 mana on turn 4!! Other ramp I'd include would be Nature's Lore , Farseek , and Cultivate . Out of these 3 I just mentioned, I'd defintely cut Explosive Vegetation for one of these. Ramp cards that you have that I would absolutely NOT cut at all are Sol Ring , Arcane Signet , Chromatic Lantern , Kodama's Reach , Skyshroud Claim , and Commander's Sphere . These cards were great choices and I would keep all of them.

DISRUPTION/REMOVAL

URG doesn't have the greatest removal options, but there are some suprisingly good choices. Also, the fact that you have access to blue means that you can run almighty counterspells. Counterspells are just awesome and they are often the only way to beat combo decks. Animar is a very creature/aggro based deck so I am not advocating that this should be a control deck by any means. I would only recommend 3 counters for this reason: Counterspell , Mana Drain , and maybe Disallow because of its versatility. I would NOT cut swan song or negate. These two cards are absolutlely amazing and were very good choices. You don't necessarily need to add all of these counters, but I'd definitely add at least 1-2 more. If you find that you don't want to add any (I'd try not to do this) then I would swap negate with Counterspell or Mana Drain . I run negate in most decks that can run it so, again, I wouldn't cut it unless you don't want to add other counters. Only then would I swap it out.

For removal, I'd recommend Reality Shift , Beast Within , and the dreaded Cyclonic Rift . Reality shift is one of the only good exile creature spells without access to white or black. Beast within will deal with any permanent and the beast it leaves means nothing to an Animar deck. Rift is a one sided INSTANT speed board wipe that can also double as temporary removal for any permanent other than lands. An Animar deck with a full board will pretty much win the game after a successful overloaded Rift. I would NOT cut Ulamog at all because he is freaking amazing and his exile two of anything ability is really nice, especially in URG. I'd also keep Balefire Dragon. He's a one sided creature board wipe. Also with the ramp upgrades he will be reliable to cast. I'd strongly recommend every single one of the three removal options I just mentioned. Steel Hellkite is also maybe good here too but I wouldn't necessarily include it. It can potentially cost 0 mana with Animar and is one-sided.

Upgrading Card Qualtiy

Let me first list all the cards here currently in your deck that I would cut. Then I'll suggest some better cards IMO. For creatures I would cut Ancestral Statue, Avatar of Slaughter (this card looks cool but is more of a fun chaos card then a reliable good card. Its 8 mana and can often backfire on you and get you killed. An 8 mana card shouldn't do this), Bearer of the Heavens , Eldrazi Mimic , Endless One , Forgotten Ancient , Hooded Hydra , Pathrazer of Ulamog , and Tromokratis (he is powerful comapered to some of my other cut suggestions, but as you'll see below, there are superior creatures that cost less mana). Assuming you take any of my suggestions, make sure that if you cut one of these creatures you replace it with a creature I suggested. You have 35 creatures in this deck which is actually a very good number for Animar so you should still try to maintain the 35 creature count.

I like your land base but you need at least 35 lands (maaaaybe 34 if you add a bunch more ramp). Your base and colored mana access is good so I will recommend utility lands here. Also don't forget about Gaea's cradle that I mentioned earlier. Anyway, consider Yavimaya Hollow , Alchemist's Refuge , Oran-Rief, the Vastwood , and Kessig Wolf Run . Hollow protects your creatures, refuge lets you play any nonland card at instant speed (many applications for this!), Vastwood buffs your board and provides synergy with the +1/+1 counter cards, and wolf run will let Animar 1 or 2 shot people for lethal commander damage. Again, here I wouldn't cut any of the lands you currently have. You just need to add a couple more lands, that's all.

Noncreature, nonland cuts I'd make would be Death's Presence (overcosted for what it does and can be played around), Forced Adaptation (slow and gives card disadvantage if the creature its on is killed) Frontier Siege (not actually a bad card but its only worth it if you have lots of fliers and not too great at ramp since its 4 mana), Rage Reflection (this card really isn't bad but I think its kinda expensive at 6 mana and slow), Explosive Vegetation (mentioned this earlier), Guided Passage (your opponnents get to see your entire deck which is BAD and you can't assume they will ever get you anything good unless both of you have a much more dangerous mutual enemy. Its also worthless in 1v1), and See the Unwritten (just severely overcosted and not very good).

Here are my suggestions finally. Note that I won't re-mention the earlier suggestions from my previous sections (ramp and removal), but don't forget those.

Creatures I'd consider including would be Kozilek, Butcher of Truth (I would directly swap this with pathrazer. It is much more powerful, has better stats, a better annhilator AND costs less mana. Plus it draws you cards. Directly making this particular swap will also slightly lower your average CMC), Consecrated Sphinx (I'd directly swap this for tromokratis. It will lower average CMC, and although it's smaller than tromo, its flying will allow it to deal damage more often than tromo. The main reason this card is busted is its draw ability. Even having this live for only two turns will win you the game by burying your opponents in card advantage), Kalonian Hydra (I'd directly replace this with Hooded Hydra as he grows WAAAY faster and buffs other creatures aside from himself provided they also have +1/+1 counters. In combination with Oran-rief, he can start buffing creatures that normally wouldn't have +1/+1 counters on them. Finally he's gross with Animar), Etali, Primal Storm , and Nezahal, Primal Tide (another big card advantage engine and can be infuriating to try to kill). Other good support creatures that help with smoothing your draws, providing various support, and/or removing things would be Keranos, God of Storms , Thassa, God of the Sea , Nylea, God of the Hunt , Genesis (he provides never ending creature recursion and is VERY difficult to stop from the graveyard much like anger, brawn, and wonder), Fauna Shaman (survival of the fittest's lesser creature cousin. Survival and fauna shaman are absolute musts in Animar because they work so well as tutors and Animar decks have high creature densities. They also combo disgustingly with genesis, anger, wonder, and brawn), and finally Eternal Witness . Eternal witness NEEDS a place in this deck. It should be in any deck with green and it is also one of the top 7 most played cards in the whole format according to EDHREC. It also is disgusting with genesis. Also note that Thassa, Keranos, Nylea, and Nezahal all resist board wipes and allow you to retain some semblance of a board state following a boardwipe. Keranos and Nezahal also draw you cards so they even help with the rebuilding after a wipe.

Noncreature stuff to consider would be Survival of the Fittest (already explained why it should be included hopefully. It's a fauna shaman that can be activated any number of times per turn instead of only once and is more difficult to remove), Seasons Past (just an insane value card that goes back in your deck and can even get difficult to recur cards like instants and sorceries), Doubling Season (high $$ card but it works really well in your deck with all the +1/+1 counters) Rhystic Study (this even sees play in cEDH like mystic remora. People will not often pay the 1 mana. If they do, they have taxed themselves. Either you draw more cards or tax your opponent's spells. It's a win/win. Also, unlike remora, it stops all types of spells and doesn't require a cumulative upkeep. Make no mistake however, remora is still AMAZING). My last and final suggestions are tutors. Tutors are so important in commander. Too important too ignore. You aren't running any that I can see. URG doesn't have the greatest tutor options but they have some really good ones. I already mentioned fauna shaman and survival of the fittest. Others I'd try hard to slot in include Green Sun's Zenith , Finale of Devastation , Mystical Tutor , and Worldly Tutor .

Anyway, I hope I have been helpful. I tried to mention the cards that I think should absolutely find a way into the deck, but also keep in mind that not all of my suggestions are a must. Again, we just want to lower the average CMC, increase ramp and removal, and upgrade card quality, (like hooded hydra >> kalonian hydra). Good luck and overall a very cool deck! You have my upvote good sir.

Enral on Xenaroid™: FDA Approved

6 months ago

DivineKhaos Hi, the cards you mentioned were definitely in the deck once but were ultimately cut as I made more refinements. Scourge is definitely great but the problem I've always encountered was that there is a 50% chance I won't get his extra combat trigger because I have the highest life total (which isn't uncommon since I'm usually the once that smash face). The rest of the creatures you mentioned were in contention for other creatures in my deck and was cut as they didn't make as much of an impact as I want to. I'm actually reconsidering Siege Behemoth . For sorceries like See the Unwritten , I try not to run anything above 4cmc as my curve is already high and those 6cmc spells are reserved for creatures only since there are multiple ways to cheat them into play. Tooth and nail was an exception as it is a game ender or can cheat up to 20cmc worth of creatures from my hand into play.

dbpunk on Why isn't Aetherworks Marvel played ...

6 months ago

Honestly another thing based on TypicalTimmy's reply is that those cards (top deckers) also is that they don't always rely on as much set up as Aetherworks Marvel . See the Unwritten only requires that the cards go into the graveyard at the end after casting it for 6, and you can potentially get two or more additional creatures. Sunbird's Invocation only really requires that you cast spells, with the power of the free stuff being higher based on what you cast.

Aetherworks Marvel needs energy, things going to graveyards and good spells on top to go all out.

Free stuff off the top isn't bad in edh, in fact I think it's generally good to be able to dig into your deck and pull out stuff when it's paired with other things in a deck (for example, pairing See the Unwritten in a recursion heavy deck is great). However, half the time a seemingly great card isnt played much, it's mostly because the setup and how long it takes makes it less great compared to other options.