Skittering Surveyor

Artifact Creature — Construct

When Skittering Surveyor enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (34)

Max_Hammer on Mardu Treasures

1 year ago

Hello friend! I have some suggestions! I had way too much time today, so here you go.

Absolute must adds

Relatively cheap, potent, and just perfect upgrades.

• Anointed Procession double the treasures, double the constructs, double the fun.

• Inspiring Statuary is going to make all of your spells cheaper without making you sacrifice artifacts.

• Oni-Cult Anvil is going to go hand-in-hand with your commander by making all of these tokens.

• Grim Hireling does make a lot more treasures, it’s going to be more useful as super annoying removal.

• Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast isn’t budget, but one murder a turn is a good deal.

• Ghirapur AEther Grid is super good. When you have untapped tokens, why not use them?

Making more goodies

This bit is, of course, focused on making as many treasures as your board can bear.

• Dockside Extortionist makes so many treasures, aaaaah! But, y’know, also stupid expensive.

• Seize the Spotlight is a way to hold your opponent’s creatures hostage! And since there are plenty of sacrifice outlets, you can just throw it away after you’re done with it.

• Life Insurance, Scion of Opulence, Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge and Pitiless Plunderer both net you tokens for sacrificing creatures (your Commander’s whole thing!!)

• The Reaver Cleaver is gold. Yes to all of this. Trample and +1/+1 is alright, but the loads of tokens will be really sweet.

• Blood Money is a board wipe, but you get even more treasures afterwards.

• Monologue Tax makes three more treasures a round, more or less.

• Bolas's Citadel can be a wincon on its own.

• Descent into Avernus is some snazzy treasure creation, but also pretty dangerous. Use with care!

• Skullport Merchant and Dockside Chef both give plenty of card draw, in exchange for a little mana.

• Black Market Connections gives you pretty much whatever you need at the moment.

• Ancient Copper Dragon makes a million treasures, plus he's a dragon.

• Hoard Hauler can protect a weaker creature that you can’t attack with and still get you more tokens.

• Prosperous Partnership is extremely useful when on the defensive. If you must have all of your big bad creatures untapped on your opponent’s combat, then you’re wasting potential! Just marry some of your creatures, they won’t mind.

• Trove of Temptation forces your opponents into a potentially uncomfortable position while giving you treasures in the meanwhile.

• Storm-Kiln Artist is a good ground defender, since it’ll kill most whatever is thrown at it, but it’ll also make plenty of tokens!

• Unexpected Windfall, Inspired Tinkering, Pirate's Pillage, Deadly Dispute, Big Score, and Seize the Spoils are all just draw but with extra token creation.

• Fake Your Own Death revives a creature and gives you a treasure.

• Contract Killing and Grim Bounty are both murders but with extra tokens, which is very nice.

• Sudden Breakthrough is a buff with first strike that makes an extra treasure.

• Sticky Fingers gets you tokens when you attack.

• Treasure Vault is here for obvious reasons. Pump it with enough mana and you’re set for life.

• Ancient Den, Great Furnace, and Vault of Whispers aren’t treasure tokens, but they are artifacts, which is just going to give you a little boost to some of your mechanics and means that you can tutor them with cards that weren’t intended for such.

• Mimic, Glittering Stockpile, and Goldhound are all just treasures. Nothing special, but still something to note.

• Smoke Spirits' Aid seems useless… Unless you board wipe after. Could be lots of damage and lots of extra treasure.

• Undercity Scrounger is okay filler, if you need it.

What to do with your treasures

Great, now you have all of these treasures, now what are you going to do with them?

Frogmite, Lens Flare, Scale of Chiss-Goria, Tooth of Chiss-Goria, Mycosynth Golem, Slag Strider, Furnace Dragon, and Myr Enforcer are all notable cards you could add, since they pretty much become free after a while, though mostly pretty useless.

Forsworn Paladin is pretty good token generation early game, but really shines with the second ability where it can instantly punish anyone blocking or attacking you recklessly.

Marionette Master is going to pack a punch.

Dargo, the Shipwrecker is super cheap for a 7/5 with trample.

Enraged Giant, Freejam Regent, Battle at the Bridge, Saheeli's Directive, Herald of Anguish, and Organic Extinction are all pretty solid additions, since they don’t make you sacrifice anything in exchange for it.

Ruthless Technomancer has a million combos with (like Dockside Extortionist+sac outlet) and is just pretty good on its own.

Leonin Elder is just one life, but when you’re playing a treasure deck, that one life will definitely add up.

Underhanded Designs is a murder or a poke engine, which is very snazzy.

Glaze Fiend is pretty scary, considering that it has trample.

Dragonspark Reactor could be a bit of removal in your back pocket or your wincon.

Arcbound Crusher’s design team didn’t anticipate just how many artifacts I was planning on throwing onto the field.

Professional Face-Breaker is just like Grim Hireling, in that it makes treasure tokens, but more importantly, it gives you something else. You get a load of impulse draw, which is really nice when you have loads of mana.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw is just an artifact tutor, really. Though, there are plenty of treasure loving dragons you could also fish for. (:

Kalain, Reclusive Painter loves treasures, giving everyone big buffs.

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire can give anything that might be sensitive to dying double strike for a big final push. That, or just give one big boy double strike.

Their Number is Legion gets you lots of life and lots of tokens.

Necron Overlord is just a worse Ghirapur, but it’s still gonna hurt.

Street Urchin is the same idea as the above.

Armix, Filigree Thrasher could be some annoying removal, especially early game.

Hellkite Igniter is a big boy that, if left unblocked, could be a one hit kill.

Feedback Bolt is a big, powerful spell. To put it simply: ouch.

Fain, the Broker can make treasures, can make +1/+1’s, and can make little spooky boys. The best type of boys. Great utility and variety overall.

Rain of Riches is big. One cascading spell a turn, whichever one you want? Imagine dropping Feedback Bolt and cascading into Hellkite Igniter.

Captain Lannery Storm is innocent… Until you leave her unblocked like a dummy.

Concussive Bolt can be an easy kill, letting you get as much damage as you want through.

Dispense Justice is just like saying “Fuck your voltron.”

Construct tribal specifically

It seems you also like having and sacrificing constructs, so here’s a bit to let you do more of that, if you’d prefer to have a construct deck over a treasure token deck.

• Solarion and Suncrusher both utilize your ability to make any color of mana and are stronger for it.

• Digsite Engineer is going to make a lot of big creatures for you.

• Flamewright and Sokenzan Smelter are going to make plenty of tiny constructs for you.

• Scrapyard Recombiner is a good tutor for you.

• Hangarback Walker, Gemini Engine, Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, Scuttling Doom Engine, Crackdown Construct are all just big boys.

• Scrap Trawler might be kind of annoying? Idunno how well it would work, I’ll let you judge that.

• Adaptive Automaton, Steel Overseer, Alibou, Ancient Witness, Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer, and Chief of the Foundry make all of your boys bigger and scarier.

• Epochrasite is great, since you can sacrifice it again and again.

• Arcbound Worker and Sparring Construct are both little boys to sacrifice,

• Ancient Stone Idol isn’t a construct, it’s a golem, but it makes a construct.

• Skittering Surveyor, Manakin, Hedron Crawler, and Millikin are all very good for mana.

• Shambling Suit and Slag Fiend are big boys that are really just a massive menace.

• Noxious Gearhulk and Chaos Defiler are removals with a big, mean body.

• Phyrexian Soulgorger is a big boy. Granted, if you let him live for too long he’ll eat your entire army, but for a little while, especially while you’re pumping out constructs, this is a good deal.

• Indulge / Excess makes creature tokens, sure, sure, but mostly makes a lot of treasures.

What to take out

• Shared Animosity will give constructs a boost, but there really isn’t a specific theme across creature types aside from that, and your constructs are better used for chump blocking or just turning them into scrap. Ignore this if you’re going for more of a construct tribal sort of thing.

• Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip is a good card, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s really necessary.

• Rakdos Charm could be replaced with something better as far as artifact removal or graveyard hate. Nihil Spellbomb would be good graveyard hate and Generous Gift is just a good white staple.

• Comet Storm is fun, but Crackle with Power is more fun.

SirHipHopHippo on The Maraxus Molotov

1 year ago

Cut Temur Battle Rage add Blasphemous Act

Cut Obsidian Battle-Axe add Chain Reaction

Cut Skittering Surveyor add Professional Face-Breaker

Cut Downhill Charge add Vandalblast

Cut Soulblast add Visions of Ruin

SirHipHopHippo on Buff Daddy

1 year ago

Skittering Surveyor

Farfinder

Pilgrim's Eye

Wily Goblin

Delina, Wild Mage

Big Score

patmurphy1986 on Lathliss Commander

2 years ago

Ok here is my take on the budget side. TLDR: Land total and Ramp increased. A lot of subpar removal taken out, and better ones put in. Some cheaper dragons/shapeshifters added to smooth out curve and provide cheap dragon drops for commander ability. Most importantly is added some value for getting extra dragons from cards, either by creating tokens or playing them for free from hand/deck. Added in 3 additional wincons similar to Terror of the Peaks to make it easier to win just by populating board and swinging in. Note that the wincons also can serve as creature removal, which is why so many of the outs are instant/sorcery removals

Lands

Out: Bonders' Enclave

In: Haven of the Spirit Dragon (creature recursion), 3 Mountain (31 lands is not enough - will miss land drops too often and its vital that the commander come down ASAP - nick loses too many times by not getting threats out in time)

Ramp

Out: Traveler's Amulet, Letter of Acceptance, Hierophant's Chalice, Seething Song, Vessel of Volatility

In: Dragon's Hoard, Liquimetal Torque, Pillar of Origins, Arcane Signet, Worn Powerstone, Mana Geyser

Control/Removal

Out: all 4 Dragon's Approach, Enchanter's Bane, Sarkhan's Dragonfire, Blazing Volley, Explosive Welcome, Fight with Fire, Sarkhan's Catharsis, Shivan Fire, Burning Anger, Smash to Smithereens, The First Eruption, Visions of Ruin, Scorching Dragonfire

In: Cinderclasm (better than blazing volley), Shenanigans (reusable artifact destruction, combos with Liquimetal Torgue), Chaos Warp, Mizzium Mortars (one sided boardwipe)

Card Draw

Out: Tin Street Market

Free/Cheap Dragons

Lowering the mana curve of dragons and providing free or cheap dragons to the board. Out: Volcanic Dragon, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, Skittering Surveyor, Etali, Primal Storm, Terror of Mount Velus

In: Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge, Taurean Mauler, Dragonkin Berserker, Dragonmaster Outcast, Molten Echoes, Minion of the Mighty, Sunbird's Invocation

Wincons

In: Gratuitous Violence, Warstorm Surge, Where Ancients Tread

Grind on Waste Not, Walk Not

3 years ago

Pilgrim's Eye , Farfinder , and Skittering Surveyor all allow you to not miss a land drop and still get another body on the field

Snake_Oil on All-Form One, One-Form All [Orvar Goodstuff]

3 years ago

It is absolutely the manta ray, but yes, Pilgrim's Eye or Skittering Surveyor is probably a more consistent pick! I've got Sadbot in there, so I'll see how the Wayfarer plays.

VampDemigod on OVERplayed cards?

3 years ago

Wastes. It costs more than a lot of random lands that are colorless and generate colorless. Yes, I can see justifying a copy or two if you have a Skittering Surveyor-type card. But in general, don’t run it in colorless decks.

ThisIsMyAccount on Remember to blink

3 years ago

The curve of the deck is a little high for what you're trying to do I think. Skittering Surveyor sort of helps speed things up but you only included one in this deck. Considering a green splash for Wall of Roots and Noble Hierarch to speed things up could help and also open up a more reliable Kitchen Finks as zapyourtumor suggested. You can flicker the Wall of Roots also so the 0/-1 counters never really matter.

Green also opens up Eternal Witness. Maybe even Reclamation Sage and Spike Feeder for the board.