Smothering Tithe
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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
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Smothering Tithe

Enchantment

Whenever an opponent draws a card, that player may pay . If the player doesn't, you create a Treasure artifact token. (It's an artifact with ", Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any colour.")

shadownovaa896 on Niko Blink (feedback welcome)

1 month ago

I appreciate the suggestions, I'll take a look at what all I should cut. As for the swifties, I put them in mostly as a way to protect a few of the bigger enders I was looking at putting in that me using Niko on wouldn't really help out like Soulherder or Mondrak, keeping some of those cards, and doing it for free is just helpful, but I'll definitely look into seeing if Swifties work better. As for the Game Changers, I was thinking between Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Cyclonic Rift, Panoptic Mirror, and Gifts Ungiven.

DreadKhan on Fun cards make fun decks

2 months ago

When you talk about 'fun cards', it makes me think of political stuff, nothing makes for memorable games like politics showing up. I'm a fan of Axis of Mortality and Exquisite Blood, either is a useful card on it's own, but combined they can be really, really fun (opponent's exchanging life totals is treated as one gaining and the other losing life, so it'll trigger Esquisite). War Tax is a fun political trick, not sure if I prefer Tax or Flood, both can actually do valuable work.

Fractured Identity is a nice Azorius card that can both remove a problem card while also making a whole bunch MORE problems! Very weird with Strixhaven Stadium for example. Visions of Duplicity is an interesting spell if your Commander has a fairly high MV, the effect is quite strong potentially. If you like the idea of giving opponent's some choices to keep things interesting, there are also Callous Oppressor and the very $$$ Preacher. Fealty to the Realm is the final relevant theft effect that comes to mind, not sure if it's good enough.

I'm one of few people who cape for them, but some of the Advocates are very strong repeatable effects; I like Pulsemage Advocate, and I love Spurnmage Advocate. I love how vs some people you can actually hurt them by putting stuff they need in the graveyard into their hand, and that you can also give the player who's fallen behind a tiny leg up.

Oh, and if you ever feel like having a blocker that can feed people cards, there is Flumph, yet also Soldevi Sentry (which is a 'combo' with Smothering Tithe in the sense that you can just feed someone as many cards as both people want, handy if you're helping them dig for a solution fwiw). Coveted Jewel is hilarious in the right meta, a real joy to see in action.

Dawnbreak Reclaimer can do a shocking amount of work sometimes, as can a World Queller (even funnier with Martyr's Bond).

You might want to look into the Hunted creatures, Hunted Horror is probably the best, but there some others that work a bit differently.

legendofa on The New Commander Brackets Beta

2 months ago

I've been struggling with this for a couple of my decklists recently, and I'm trying to summarize my thoughts here without starting a new thread. So this is semi-stream-of-thought, and I apologize if it gets a little rambly.

There are several criteria being tracked by the current bracket system, including resource generation, speed, reliability, and oppression, and possibly others.

Game changers: A combo like Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact + Thassa's Oracle gets a key card on the game changers list, because it's fast and reliable, ending a match on turn 3-4. These are speed game changers. Other game changers generate resources just by playing the game, like Rhystic Study or Smothering Tithe. This group often also includes oppression, since a lot of them tax the opponent. Another group is cheap (1-2 mana) tutors, like Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, or Survival of the Fittest, that increase a deck's reliability for very little opportunity cost. Most game changers can be sorted into one of these four categories. Ancient Tomb and Gaea's Cradle are speed and resource generation, Drannith Magistrate and Force of Will are oppression, and so on.

Bracket Guidelines: From Gavin Verhey's announcement article, here's what each of the brackets mean and expect. Important to note that the system is still in beta testing, so this is probably going to be different in the future.

  • Bracket 1: Decks with more focus on a gimmick than on winning. "Winning is not the primary goal here, as it's more about showing off something unusual you've made. Villains yelling in the art? Everything has the number four? Oops, all Horses? Those are all fair game!" This bracket doesn't allow extra turns, two-card infinite combos, mass land denial, or game changers, and restricts tutors.

  • Bracket 2: Decks that can win, but are not tightly focused, or slow to develop. "While Bracket 2 decks may not have every perfect card, they have the potential for big, splashy turns, strong engines, and are built in a way that works toward winning the game. While the game is unlikely to end out of nowhere and generally goes nine or more turns, you can expect big swings." This bracket doesn't allow any game changers, mass land denial, two-card infinite combos, or multiple extra turns in a row, and restricts tutors.

  • Bracket 3: Decks that are focused on winning efficiently, but are not optimized. "They are full of carefully selected cards, with work having gone into figuring out the best card for each slot. The games tend to be a little faster as well, ending a turn or two sooner than your Core (Bracket 2) decks." This bracket does not allow mass land denial or multiple extra turns in a row, and restricts game changers and two-card infinite combos, and allows tutors freely.

  • Bracket 4: Decks that are optimized for their strategy. "Bring out your strongest decks and cards... This is high-powered Commander, and games have the potential to end quickly. The focus here is on bringing the best version of the deck you want to play, but not one built around a tournament metagame." This bracket has no restrictions.

  • Bracket 5: Decks that expect to win at the most competitive levels. "There is care paid into following and paying attention to a metagame and tournament structure, and no sacrifices are made in deck building as you try to be the one to win the pod." This brackets has no restrictions.

Deck Analysis 1: The deck I've been struggling most with is Clear Waters. As I listed in another thread, it has an infinite turns combo (Wanderwine Prophets + Deeproot Pilgrimage + Merfolk Sovereign) and mass land denial (Opposition + Seedborn Muse, Quicksilver Fountain), and a selection of tutors to pull these together (Forerunner of the Heralds, Idyllic Tutor, Merrow Harbinger, Seahunter, and Sterling Grove). This should put it squarely into Bracket 4.

My concern is that it's neither high powered nor optimized. On the axes of speed, resource generation, reliability, and oppression, I would score it high on oppression, pretty good on reliability, and low on speed and resources generation. Looking at examples of other Bracket 4 decks around the internet, all four of those criteria need to be high in this bracket. The infinite turns combo is slow and easily removed, and the land denial is optional (Opposition can have other targets) or temporary (Quicksilver Fountain can remove its own effect).

It would be easy to simply add a big pile of game changers to improve all of these facets. Right now, it has one game changer in Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, and that one's not essential to the deck. That's not the direction I want to go with the deck, though--I want to keep it reasonably budget, and even adding the three least expensive of the game changers I'm considering would basically double the deck's cost.

I know that people in brackets under 4 want to be able to play their deck, and the infinite turns and land denial shut that down. These are clearly stated in the announcement article -"A single extra-turn spell can be fun and splashy. However, extra-turn spells take a ton of time away from other players and their ability to play the game and tend to be unfun when repeated."- that's why they're forced into brackets 4 and 5. But if a deck isn't able to compete against high power, optimized Bracket 4 decks, can it be considered Bracket 4?

Deck Analysis 2: Another deck that I've been struggling with is an enchantment deck, Do Not Mistake Peace For Passivity. The point of concern for this deck is land denial. Blood Moon is classic mass land denial, and the deck is designed to play around it with Abundant Growth, Fertile Ground, Prismatic Omen, and similar cards. It also has a combo that doesn't directly deny lands, but punishes their play and use: Manabarbs + Citadel of Pain. Otherwise, the deck fits all the criteria of a Bracket 2 deck--no game changers, no infinite combos, few tutors, and no extra turns.

This deck can be converted into a pure Bracket 2 deck without much effort by replacing Blood Moon and Manabarbs. But as it stands, a single card pushes the deck up two brackets, according to the guidelines. Again, I don't feel the deck is high powered or optimized, and would not be able to compete in a Bracket 4 match. It could probably survive in Bracket 3, since it's highly synergistic, but nothing any higher.

In this case, adding a bunch of game changers and power cards would somewhat dilute how the deck functions. A few, like Smothering Tithe or Trouble in Pairs, could slot in, but most others would be more gratuitous.

Conclusion: To quote the article again, "There's some wiggle room, and while playing against decks that are all inside your bracket is ideal, you can usually wiggle within one bracket away from you safely." "You should play where you think you belong based on the descriptions." All of this can be discussed in a Rule 0 talk. I strongly believe the brackets are intended to help this conversation, not replace it. As an example, for the Clear Waters deck, I would say that the deck is not optimized to Bracket 4, and I think it fits best into Bracket 3, but it's controlling and has a potential three-card infinite turns combo. I'm willing to announce when the combo is assembled and ready to start, to give everyone a turn cycle to react, and reduce the use of Opposition to creatures and artifacts.

I feel like the current setup is a little too restrictive of the kind of combo-control decks I like. I can have fun smashing big creatures into each other and outmaneuvering everyone else, but I will enjoy locking down the board and establishing my inevitability, and I'm having a harder time trying to find ways to do that in lower brackets. Some people have already offered me excellent feedback and suggestions that I'm taking into consideration, but I'd also like to see how people are responding to the bracket system so far.

For comparison, here's a few more of my decklists:

legendofa on Testing brackets with Merfolk combos

2 months ago

Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Enlightened Tutor, Fierce Guardianship, Force of Will, Survival of the Fittest, Tundra, Tropical Island... Even without the lands, that's a few hundred dollars' worth of optimization to not change the bracket.

Tsukimi on Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher

3 months ago

I'd definitely recommend including some treasure synergy! Each treasure you use is a permanent sac'd that will boost Carmen. Grim Hireling is usually better is decks that go a bit wide, but even if you hit two players I'd say it's already returned your investment. Smothering Tithe, Treasure Vault, and Pitiless Plunderer, and Warren Soultrader come to mind. There are also cards that give everyone at the table treasures, clues, food, etc. which synergize really well with Carmen.

Andramalech on Y'Shtola's Arcane Arsenal

3 months ago

Potential 3-mana or more spells to consider:

Maybe also consider some really classic three cost spells that revolve around some of magic's oldest reprinted spells. etc. Cancel, Generous Gift, stuff like that.

Other stuff to consider would be ways to replace creatures within your list with 3+ cmc spells that hold up the same keywords/wording/etc.

Good luck!

Andramalech on The Mind-Razing Monarch

3 months ago

Necramus in terms of original commanders, this guy takes the cake for me. I'll always enjoy the truly wizard-like philosophy of "I didn't ask about your Rhystic Study, I didn't ask about your Smothering Tithe, I said Winds of Change." Let's throw it all in a pile and douse it with kerosene, then ignite a blunt with a sparkler that's stuck in a twizzler like a limp candy wand. It's time to get wild.

lhetrick13 on Gishath Spared No Expense!!!

4 months ago

Mortlocke - "Interesting philosphy regarding your commander getting combat damage - instead of trying to sneak by, you just hit them harder." Yes, that summarizes my play style very well, lol. I am not to much for gimmicks or shenanigans...I just love a good ol' beatdown!

In terms of card draw/tutoring, ya, the Naya colors are not great at it and I could definitely add in things like Trouble in Pairs to get more draw or Smothering Tithe for arguable some of the best ramp out there, but nominally, I am not playing to much from my hand once I get Gishath out as she is tutoring creatures for me. The deck is kinda centered around having 50+ either lands, ramp, or cards I deem an accelerate like Hunting Velociraptor so pretty much every other card in the deck helps get Gishath out fast. From that point on, it is more focused on protection of my boardstate. I am running Forerunner of the Empire, Savage Order, and Congregation at Dawn for creature tutors. So they are in there but jsut not some of the classic ones you would expect. I like the flexability those provide over Worldly Tutor. Finale of Devastation is a beast of a card but since I am not running Ghalta, Primal Hunger, the card kinda loses some of its flair with this decklist. Growing Rites of Itlimoc  Flip I actually dropped for Welcome to ...  Flip! Very similar cards and I just like the Jurassic Park cards soooo much. Hard not to add those in!

I am working on the Gaea's Cradle! Hard to justify dropping pretty much 6 months of my monthly MTG budget on a single card but hoping some of my side hustles this summer will let me pick that up. It is not phenominal in this deck like it would be in something like Chatterfang, but it would still be more effective than some of the other lands/cards I have in the decklist!

Thanks for all the thoughts you are posting, I do greatly appreciate the questions and recommendations! It has been about 5 months since I played this deck so I need to sit down and take a look at it again and ask some of the hard questions about why I included some things and why I dropped others.

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