Shivan Reef

Land

: Gain .

: Gain or . Shivan Reef deals 1 damage to you.

Discussion (51)

TriusMalarky on Returning players - where to ...

15 hours ago

Since you're just playing with friends, you get the leeway of not needing to spend tons of money acquiring decent cards. That means that, overall, you can get a lot more bang for your buck.

I'll be giving you my personal preferences for a casual player who may or may not ever get into slightly more competitive play, AKA FNM.

• 1) There are bulk boxes available for $15-20 of a thousand or two assorted cards. Keep in mind a lot of the cards might not be legal in Modern, but they do tend to be acquired from mostly newer sets(from the two I bought, ~70% of the contents were standard legal at the time of purchase). I recommend one of those to just about everyone who's getting into the game. They might not end up giving you tons of great value, but it's solid card fodder to help you learn and explore more archetypes and strategies.

I also recommend picking up cheap staples by the playset. The following are a bunch of cards you can probably get for $2 or less apiece, in many cases for the whole 4 copies.

• Duress

• Lightning Bolt

• Opt

• Anticipate

• Adventurous Impulse

• Spell Pierce

• Negate

• Caves of Koilos

• Battlefield Forge

• Llanowar Wastes

• Yavimaya Coast

• Shivan Reef

• Mystical Dispute

• Llanowar Elves

• Elvish Mystic

• Burning-Tree Emissary

• Ritual of Soot

• Fumigate

• Hieroglyphic Illumination

• Foundry Street Denizen

• Borderland Marauder

• Colossal Dreadmaw

• Charging Monstrosaur

• Evolving Wilds, but depending on how many multicolored decks you make, you should get quite a lot. Great in casual settings.

• Thriving Isle, Thriving Grove, Thriving Heath, Thriving Bluff, Thriving Moor, Vivid Crag, Vivid Creek, Vivid Meadow, Vivid Grove, Vivid Marsh

That's mostly just a pile of suggestions, though. The lands will be absolutely necessary for any multicolor deck you build, although wait a month or three to get the Thriving lands because those currently have an immensely low supply and will be reprinted shortly.

multimedia on Kalamax Storm

4 days ago

Hey, nice budget version of Kalamax.

If you want to win with burn then I suggest Chandra's Ignition or the less expensive price Gravitic Punch. Either one of these cards can combo with Kalamax + a Fork to infinite burn all your opponents. Muddle the Mixture is a helpful budget card because can transmute for a 2 CMC Fork or it can be a pseudo Negate. Ignition or Punch could replace Genesis Ultimatum since there's many more nonpermanent cards here than permanents. Muddle could replace Ionize.

Narset's Reversal is excellent with Kalamax since you can use the copy that Kalamax makes of Reversal to target and bounce original Reversal back to your hand. This makes Reversal with Kalamax repeatable two mana to copy any instant or sorcery that's cast. Reversal could replace Fury Storm. Insidious Will is another budget Fork that can also be a counterspell or a Swat. Will could replace Sleight of Hand.

Kessig Wolf Run and Crop Rotation to tutor for it is a repeatable way to give Kalamax trample making him much more of a threat to do Commander damage. Run could replace x1 Mountain and Crop could replace Gut Shot. Shivan Reef is budget land to consider adding replacing 1x Mountain.

Good luck with your deck.

MarkovBrewer69 on Brass’s Booty

1 week ago

As far as mechanized production goes it will work that way, so you can copy treasures or even other artifacts in your deck. I understand if you want to focus more on the flavor though.

So at a glance I would say that Diabolic Tutor, Brainstorm, and Preordain are the most out of place. The tutor is very expensive and there isn't anything I am seeing that is really worth paying 4 extra mana to have in your hand. For the most part the cantrips just replace themselves and while they may moderately fix your draw, they don't give card advantage like some of the other cards in your deck. I tend to only put them in decks that synergize in some way with them. For the last one I would say pick your least favorite card, none stick out as particularly bad in the deck.

For the lands, I think you could afford to cut some basics and that may help fix mana. Some non-basics you could run that won't cost too much on their own are Temple of Deceit, Temple of Malice, Temple of Epiphany, Shivan Reef, Underground River, Grixis Panorama, Path of Ancestry, Thriving Bluff, Thriving Isle, Thriving Moor. I don't know if those thriving lands are available quite yet though. Of course the less basics you run the more consistent your colors will be, in your case I would shoot for around 10-12 total.

TriusMalarky on Lands choice

2 weeks ago

Glad I could help!

Of course, that's just a 5-minute rundown. There are theoretically infinite situations in which you'd rather have fetchshock, and same for not having fetchshock.

For instance, if you're actively milling yourself and/or removing cards from your deck, then fetches aren't as good because there's a chance that they'll fizzle because the best shock isn't there. But if you have Life from the Loam you like fetches to make sure you hit your land drops. Which means the Dredge archetype, while it wants some fetches, should also be using a manabase that functions fairly well without fetch-shocking, so they have to create a weird manabase that accommodates both aspects.

I'd also say that sometimes, painlands are actually better than unfetchable versions of the og duals(Shivan Reef v Volcanic Island). There are situations where they are just better -- and situations in which they're terrible.

Also note that filter lands(Mystic Gate and friends) immediately lose to Damping Sphere.

One more note: budget really influences your manabase. Most of the time, it is correct to go fetch-shock. I'd say fetchshockcheck is the best for your average 2 color deck(example for UW: 4x Flooded Strand, 2x Hallowed Fountain, 4x Glacial Fortress). This is because most decks in modern really benefit from fetches. In fact, a lot of the cards on the modern banlist would be fine if fetches didn't exist. Additionally, a lot of the best cards in Modern are only all that good because Fetches exist. Think Fatal Push. Even Tireless Tracker is far less powerful without fetches.

shmamby.tandenbaum on Just dump it in the SINK

3 weeks ago

I'd recommend adding at least one board wipe, obvi Cyclonic Rift is the best in these colors, but there are plenty of good options if you're not trying to spend all that money. Flood of Tears, Evacuation, Aether Gale, or AEtherize if you're in a meta with someone who likes to attack.

Beyond that I would just recommend adding dual lands to smooth things out. I playtested a bit, and I found myself struggling with having the right colors of mana with just basics. I'd start with adding Sulfur Falls, Hinterland Harbor and Rootbound Crag given the number of basics you're running. I'd also recommend the Pain lands Shivan Reef, Yavimaya Coast, and Karplusan Forest. Fabled Passage would also be good as the price has dropped as of this comment (though is still a little pricey), and maybe test adding Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse.

The_Fallen_Duke on Eternal Dominion/Villainous Wealth/Torment of Hail

3 weeks ago

Fetch-lands are surely overpriced, but basic lands are almost for free, so I would not refrain to run a couple, especially islands and forests: they are not commonly played cards, but a Back to Basics or a Blood Moon would completely shut down your deck with no chance for recovery. A couple of pain-lands (e.g. Shivan Reef, Yavimaya Coast, etc.) could be considered, as they are quite cheap and do not enter the battlefield tapped.

multimedia on Pirates Live to Pillage and Plunder

1 month ago

Hey, good start, nice Dockside Extortionist and Vampiric Tutor :)

Consider more one/two drop Pirates especially ones with flying? More overall one/two drop Pirates helps to assemble a battlefield of Pirates to attack the turn you play Brass.

• Siren Stormtamer
• Spectral Sailor
• Warkite Marauder
• Kitesail Freebooter
• Dire Fleet Daredevil
• Dire Fleet Poisoner

Forerunner of the Coalition is a Pirate tutor and it can also be a repeatable source opponents' lose life when a Pirate ETB. Ruin Raider can be repeatable draw at your end step with attacking Pirates. Anger and Wonder are good with Pirates especially Wonder giving them flying evasion. Giving all your Pirates including Brass flying can be a win condition with attacking Pirates. Brass is much better when she has haste letting her attack the turn you cast her. Pirates who can attack the turn you play them can help to trigger Brass's gain control ability quicker.

Buried Alive can tutor for both Anger/Wonder as well as one other creature and put them all into your graveyard. Can also use Buried with Phyrexian Reclamation and/or March of the Drowned as a way to tutor for Pirates put them into your graveyard and then recur them to your hand. Reclamation can be helpful repeatable recursion for Pirates since Pirates are going to die over the course of a game.

Marchesa, the Black Rose is not a Pirate, but she can be a repeatable source of reanimating Pirates. Dethrone is an attacking ability where as if a Pirate attacks your opponent with the most amount of life then that Pirate gets a +1/+1 counter. With Marchesa if that Pirate dies then it will come back to the battlefield at your end step. Metallic Mimic is a Pirate when it ETB who interacts well with Marchesa since Mimic can put a +1/+1 counter on another Pirate when it ETB.

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Adding some more ramp can help game play:

• Arcane Signet
• Dimir Signet
• Izzet Signet
• Rakdos Signet

Some budget lands (each $5 or less) to consider adding:

• Exotic Orchard
• Unclaimed Territory
• Crumbling Necropolis
• Shivan Reef
• Underground River
• Sunken Hollow
• Smoldering Marsh
• Sulfur Falls
• Dragonskull Summit
• Grixis Panorama
• Ash Barrens
• Evolving Wilds
• Dimir Aqueduct
• Izzet Boilerworks
• Rakdos Carnarium

These are budget land options, but of course there's many other better options for lands that are more expensive.

Good luck with your deck.

The_Fallen_Duke on Blue Flame

1 month ago

The deck looks good and it should be fun and effective to play, just a couple of observations:

• is Swiftfoot Boots meant to protect Niv Mizzet from removal? Maybe I am missing something, but it does not seem like a necessary card in this build. Also, Spellbook costs 0 but takes a spot for an effect that you already can benefit from Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower: I would rather replace it with a good old Izzet Signet to get some extra ramp instead.

• there are many lands that ETB tapped, almost a third of your landbase and some of them without providing any additional benefit (cycling and scry are a good trade-off imo): I'd take out Highland Lake, Izzet Guildgate and Swiftwater Cliffs and replace with something more effective but still affordable such as Shivan Reef and Steam Vents or even some extra basics. Also, with a two colour deck very colour intense in the mana cost, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and even Ash Barrens would be in my opinion better replaced by some basic lands - unless it is the shuffling effect you are looking for.

• your commander is a wizard, but you have only 4 wizards in the deck, meaning that more often than not your Wizard's Retort will be just a Cancel. Staying budget, I'd honestly rather have a Negate or Dispel if you want a hard counter or Mana Leak if you prefer more flexibility.