Skycloud Expanse

Land

, : Gain .

Discussion (27)

outofnothing0 on Zur's Perfection

1 year ago

Been super busy lately so sorry for the late replies!

@Limo: Thanks for the upvote! I'll be sure to take a look at your deck!

@MooneBoyIrish: If you had read the deck description I've put the relevant ruling for auras there as many get confused by them; basically auras only target when cast so if they are put into play as part of an effect (ie. Zur, Replenish , Open the Vaults , etc) they can be attached to a legal permanent of your choosing (as defined by the enchant ability) without targeting that permanent. As MtgMaster02 pointed out Triclopean Sight is indeed both backup to Daybreak Coronet as well as an effective means to get Stasis up and running.

@SlowMoon17: I'd say both yes and no. I've slightly drifted away from the straight 1v1 environment to make it more resilient and able to at least hold its own in multiplayer as well (due to the local meta). I feel like there are faster ways of combo winning ( Doomsday , Phyrexian Unlife , etc) but that's just boring. There's something about playing land destruction/ Stasis and seeing the light drain from your oppenents' eyes that just makes it oh so worth it haha.

@Im_ygy: Yea... lol. I just looked it up and the entire decklist non-foiled, without Timetwister and OG duals is still around $2100 NM/PL

@MordMetal: It really depends on how budget you want. Obviously don't foil it lol; but in all seriousness you can save a ton on the land base alone. Add more basics and tap lands ( Arcane Sanctum / Vivid Creek / Vivid Marsh / Vivid Meadow ), use Evolving Wilds / Terramorphic Expanse instead of fetches, etc. If your overall CMC is still low swap Dark Confidant for Dark Tutelage , Snapcaster Mage for Archaeomancer / Mnemonic Wall . As for Timetwister it really depends on what effect you are looking for... GY shuffle: Elixir of Immortality , Card draw: Windfall , both: Time Spiral although it costs double the mana (and untaps!) and is still expensive although still cheaper by a phenomenal amount. These are just some examples. I'd recommend doing an advanced Gatherer search (https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx) for specific effects you are looking for in a cheaper card variant.

@Dankey Thank you! I like running Jace, the Mind Sculptor for the Brainstorm effect (and Unsummon effect if needed) to filter away any enchantments that find thier way into my hand (so i can tutor them up for free). In 1v1 Jace basically lets me know what my opponent is drawing most of the time too; so for now I think he is just too versatile to get rid of.

@cango35: I really like Winding Canyons in most creature based decks but i think it'd be kind of a waste here for a few reasons. Firstly I overall barely have any creatures. Secondly the additional 2 mana is killer... it'd mean i'd need 6 mana PLUS the land to get it off and that's just not worth the luxury of flash in my opinion. Thanks for the suggestion though!

@hoffie4: I've had Strionic Resonator in the deck for ages! You must've missed it XD

@Auraprime1984: There are a few options. The rest of the mana base is pretty solid, so to be honest it doesn't matter a whole lot. You could add more basics, the third painland ( Caves of Koilos ), Exotic Orchard , maybe Tainted Isle / Tainted Field , Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , Prairie Stream / Sunken Hollow , Choked Estuary / Port Town , etc. You could also use some tap lands like Arcane Sanctum , Celestial Colonnade , Fetid Pools / Irrigated Farmland , Temple of Deceit / Temple of Enlightenment , etc. Signet lands are also an option Darkwater Catacombs / Skycloud Expanse . You mostly just have to figure out what would work best with your build. Hope that helps!

Chandra585 on Triple A [[Azorius Artifact Attack!]]

1 year ago

First off, Ice Cave isn’t really thematic or synergistic with a deck like this, and I think it’s actively bad in Commander because the rest of the table will be mad at you for letting their spells get countered. Daxos usually benefits from a much more Voltron-like strategy with more equipment. If you want to stay about here though, Tezzeret the Seeker is a good tutor. Other than that, you just need to upgrade your land base with cards like Glacial Fortress , Nimbus Maze , Skycloud Expanse , Port Town , and utility pieces like Maze of Ith

Last_Laugh on Unfinished Card Cycles You Want ...

1 year ago

Biggest 2 for me are the Odyssey Filterlands and the Talismans (i.e. Skycloud Expanse and Talisman of Progress ) which are only available in friendly color pairs. Enemy color pairs and wedges get the shaft and are typically more expensive to build a mana base for.

I understand that 2 drop mana rocks and lands that don't inherrantly tap for mana on their own aren't coming out in a Standard environment and that Commander products only get so many slots for new cards.

But is finishing a cycle really creating a new card? Name it, slap some unused art that's already sitting around on it and voila! I really wish someone in creative (or whatever department) would just ask for a few extra new card slots to finish cycles.

Just make them uncommon in a 3 color wedge Commander product so they each show up in 2 different decks and there's more printed in this instance.

Anyone else have a card cycle that they wish WotC would finish?

Caerwyn on Just a Girl and Her Wonder Wall

1 year ago

The competitive meter is a very finicky tool. I've seen non-material changes, such as making a deck foiled, with no other modifications, result in a several percentage point difference.

The biggest improvement you can do for your deck is fix the mana base. You have far too many lands that enter the battlefield tapped or do not untap normally, which is going to drastically hurt your performance. I would suggest removing these lands and replacing them with cards such as the Pain Lands (ex. Adarkar Wastes ), Check Lands (ex. Glacial Fortress ), Filter Lands (ex. Skycloud Expanse ; Mystic Gate ), and Bond Lands (ex. Sea of Clouds ). You can also run some rainbow lands, such as Mana Confluence and City of Brass .

Azorius Signet , Selesnya Signet , and Simic Signet will also help with your mana acceleration.

High Alert would be a solid card to add, giving you another method of allowing your defenders to attack.

Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive will make most of your creatures unblockable.

Stalwart Shield-Bearers makes your creatures bigger.

Tree of Redemption can become a 0/30 or so fairly easily.

Fortified Area gives all your walls Banding, which allows them to prevent opponents from having damage Trample over to you.

Sunscape Familiar acts as pseudo-ramp by reducing the cost of your spells.

You can cut the following:

Glacial Wall , Murmuring Phantasm , Wall of Ice , and other creatures with limited effect.

Myth Unbound does relatively little for you.

Caerwyn on Dual Land Advice

1 year ago

Generally, I would rank the mana lands lands into a couple different tiers (within these tiers there might be some striation--this is just a general overview).

At the top are your original Duals, like Tundra for obvious reasons. They enter untapped, they can be fetched, and they have no downside other than being nonbasic lands.

The second tier are your shock lands, like Hallowed Fountain . These can be fetched and have the option of entering untapped, though there is a slight downside. The downside, however, is mitigated some by the fact it only has to be paid once.

The next tier are the lands that enter untapped but have a downside or other restriction to use. These include your filter lands ( Skycloud Expanse , Mystic Gate ), check lands ( Glacial Fortress ); pain lands ( Adarkar Wastes ); etc.

There are a couple lands that enter untapped that I would not include in this tier, such as mana batteries ( Calciform Pools ) or lands that have restrictions on their being untapped ( Thalakos Lowlands ; Land Cap ; etc.).

Finally we get to lands that enter tapped. If you are on a restrictive budget, you can use these, but you are going to have significant problems with hitting your curve. Ideally, everyone in your meta will have a similar mana base, as otherwise you will be perpetually a turn behind in terms of mana generation.

The tri-lands would fall into this lowest tier. While having three colours is nice, they are still too slow for all but the most casual of tables. There are plenty of decent rainbow options, such as Mana Confluence , that would be a preferable choice.

mmcgeach on Control Zur

1 year ago

Heya VelvetVendetta, I'm not super keen on those lands ( Darkwater Catacombs , Skycloud Expanse ), since they don't produce mana on their own, so it can be awkward if they're your only land, or an early land. Still, they can be good. But, the mana base is pretty tight. There's basics, fetches, duals, 5 color lands, and utility lands. I guess you could slot something in over City of Brass which is probably the worst rainbow land, but I'd probably go for Morphic Pool or Sea of Clouds .

I'll check out the Jhoira deck.

WhichKing on

1 year ago

Since you are playing a two-colour deck you do not need a lot of colour-fixing. Other than special ability lands, you do not need lands that give you multiple colours. Back to Basics is an extremely powerful effect that you should capitalize on for your "Law" deck.

You can cut the following cards:

• Azorius Chancery
• Irrigated Farmland
• Nimbus Maze
• Port Town
• Prairie Stream
• Seachrome Coast
• Skycloud Expanse
• Temple of Enlightenment
• Tranquil Cove

and replace them with a Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds and basic Islands and Plains.

pokepower116 on The Lich is Back

1 year ago

Mana Fixing - Hard to go wrong with Chromatic Lantern! Since your commander costs 4, Coldsteel Heart or Fellwar Stone might not be bad ideas to go along with your signets so that you can ramp it out on turn 3. As far as lands go, I think they're gonna be your best bet for filtering since you have so many options available to you! Aside from the obvious dual lands and fetch lands; there are the rest of the filter lands cycle with Mystic Gate and Sunken Ruins; there's the old Odyssey filters Skycloud Expanse and Darkwater Catacombs; River of Tears and Nimbus Maze are criminally underplayed but fantastic cards; there are the new battlebond lands Morphic Pool and Sea of Clouds; and lastly there are the lands that tap for any color like Mana Confluence, City of Brass, Forbidden Orchard.

As far as staying alive goes, I notice you already have Solemnity in your maybeboard to combo with Glacial Chasm and Delaying Shield but another card that works well with Delaying Shield is Soul Echo. As long as Soul Echo has one counter on it, you're pretty much immune from damage. Also it's another card that lets you drop below 0 life. Obviously not a great combo with Solemnity but I think running one of the two wouldn't be a bad idea!

On the other side of that coin, if you happen to have Repay in Kind in hand and need to be at 0 life, Wall of Blood or Hex Parasite can help with that. Hex Parasite can only drain in increments of 2 but is a bit more versatile of a card whereas Wall of Blood can drain one life at a time, but is pretty much there only for that.

Hope some of this helped at all!