Soul Ransom

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Soul Ransom

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature You control enchanted creature. Discard two cards: Soul Ransom's controller sacrifices it, then draws two cards. Only an opponent may activate this ability.

Optimator on Tricksy Pixies

2 years ago

Some good enchantment-based card draw to note:

Kumena's Awakening - this would be an excellent choice on a budget. You should always have The City's Blessing. My favorite "not-Rhystic-Study" replacements.

Dire Undercurrents - amazing card but expensive. If I were you I would make this one of your first upgrades. Seems perfect.

Curious Obsession

Vampiric Rites

Arguel's Blood Fast  Flip and Greed and Erebos, God of the Dead - Alela's lifelink would help pay

Erebos, Bleak-Hearted is playable in this deck.

Dark Prophecy - the power is there, but might be difficult early.

Military Intelligence should be reliable. Great for two mana

Staggering Insight

Curse of Verbosity - I think it's kind of underrated. Should be good with your flyers and might take some heat off you. It's no Rhystic Study.

Rhystic Study duuuuhhhhh

Fall from Favor

Ophidian Eye

Insight - huuuge upside, potentially useless. I love it though!

Monastery Siege - it's basically drawing half a card per turn for three mana, but can protect your creatures if it's that part of the game. It's all right

Verity Circle - Huge upside, potentially useless

Phyrexian Arena - one of the best, but the price tag may not be worth it in this deck since you're running blue and can easily take advantage of flying creatures

Court of Ambition - it should be easy to get The Monarch whenever you want with your flyers

Marchesa's Decree is all right. Probably better in other decks

Sanctum of Calm Waters and Honden of Seeing Winds

Soul Ransom - might be fun to recur.

Teferi's Ageless Insight - might be good, better in decks where the commander draws cards. The power is there though.

Coastal Piracy

Kindred Discovery - ridiculous power with a ridiculous price tag to match. It's not a "may" ability so you can easily deck yourself. Isn't that winning though?

Patient Rebuilding - statistically draws one card a turn. Potentially high ceiling, can also whiff. Better for decks with graveyard synergies. Animate Dead and Necromancy are excellent, and Dance of the Dead is playable.

Mind Unbound

Well of Ideas

Thought Reflection

Optimator on

3 years ago

Drop Faerie Tauntings , Ashiok, Nightmare Muse , Traumatize , Trepanation Blade , add about one or two more ramp and two more card-draw at least. I almost always run 8 pieces of ramp and the prevailing wisdom is 10. Same for card-draw: I aim for 8, many aim for 10. Extra ramp is great with Oona's ability and card-draw can draw you into lands and just generally smooth everything out.

Reconnaissance Mission would be good. Treasure Cruise is often almost an Ancestral Recall and is budget too. Even though you're running Blue , Read the Bones is a great rate, as is Night's Whisper . Divination , Concentrate , and Tidings are all great on a budget, if a bit unexciting.

I love Keep Watch , Borrowing 100,000 Arrows , Theft of Dreams , Insight , Windfall , Plea for Power , Curse of Verbosity , and Manifold Insights but they are swingy. High ceilings, low floors. The mana cost on them is what makes them so good.

Midnight Clock is budget right now but it's starting to make waves. Get yours now while they're cheap. Ramp AND draw! Great on a budget.

Secrets of the Golden City and Kumena's Awakening should usually be City's Blessing-ed. I like Kimena's a lot on a budget (along with Patient Rebuilding ). Rush of Knowledge is decent if you have Oona out. Fathom Trawl is a guaranteed three non-lands, though it might be a bit lackluster with so many faeries. Not a bad card though. Mind Spring is great with ramp.

Drawn from Dreams and Dig Through Time are probably better than Diabolic Tutor until you have a game-winning card in the deck like Coat of Arms or some combo pieces (of which all are out-of-budget). I'd say drop Diabolic Tutor . Diabolic Vision is all right on a budget, as is Pilfered Plans , Forbidden Alchemy , and Notion Rain . We can probably do better, even on a tight budget.

Soul Ransom is kind of faerie-ish. Pact of the Serpent maybe?

With all your fliers, Rogue's Gloves and Mask of Memory are fantastic card-draw cards. Mask of Riddles is cute. Curiosity and Curious Obsession are decent but dangerous. Chart a Course is decent with fliers. Whispering Madness can be good with fliers too.

I have mixed feelings about Opt , Serum Visions , Sleight of Hand , Ponder , Preordain , Portent . They certainly don't hurt but they're bad late-game. I run them in some decks. Consider them if most of your card-draw is expensive. Brainstorm is a bit of a trap unless you have ways to shuffle your library and get rig of unwanted cards. This usually requires fetch lands like Polluted Delta and is better in 60-card formats.

Rain of Revelation , Archmage's Charm , Fact or Fiction , Succumb to Temptation , Precognitive Perception , Frantic Search , Pull from Tomorrow , Gush , Village Rites are all good for being instants so you can leave counterspells up and if you don't need them you can draw. That's one of the reasons a card like Anticipate looks weak but is nice for keeping counterspells open. Fact or Fiction is particularly good and is considered a staple in many formats, including EDH.

I would swap out Dimir Locket and Dimir Cluestone for Mind Stone and Prismatic Lens . Maybe Star Compass if it is in budget. I know you need your colors but 3-mana mana rocks that don't have huge upside are sooooo slow. Arcane Signet is probably out of budget, which is too bad. Is Wayfarer's Bauble still expensive? Probably. Worn Powerstone and Hedron Archive maybe? Oona isn't cheap and you want mana for her ability if push comes to shove. Trinket Mage is ramp because it can snag Sol Ring , making it the same rate as Explosive Vegetation and Hedron Archive .

Tyrant-Thanatos on Decks you want to make...

3 years ago

Idk about decks I want to make, but I definitely have built a few that I don't play frequently for the same reason. Nekusar is a huge guilty pleasure of mine. Wheels always have been for me since I pulled a Teferi's Puzzle Box back when I was brand new. I remember never really understanding why all my friends hated it lmao.

And then there's theft. My guilty favorite form of removal is to turn them against their owners. It always feels so awful though. I've actively gone hunting for theft effects that "feel less bad". There's not a lot of them... but I do enjoy me a good Abduction, Soul Ransom, or Master Thief. There was definitely a period of time in my playgroup that I was rightfully persecuted as "the Treachery guy".

Boza on Soul Ransom owner of Soul …

3 years ago

Control of a creature is a timestamp - when the control effect ends, for whatever reason, control reverts back to the latest control effect that still applies.

So, if someone plays a creature, another player casts Mind Control on it, and yet another cast Soul Ransom afterwards, the third player will control the creature. If someone destroys Soul ransom, control will revert to the Mind COntrol player, and if both are destroyed at the same time, control will revert to the player who put the creature in play.

Supersaulty on Soul Ransom owner of Soul …

3 years ago

I Soul Ransom an opponent's creature. I now control his creature but I die... Where does that creature go?

gaarvaag on Scarab God EDH

4 years ago

Thanks for all the tips, already made a few changes to the deck now that I'm quite happy with. Still considering making more changes. I have now included Mind Stone and Basalt Monolith for more ramp. Also running Frantic Search , Careful Study and Ancient Excavation now.

I also added a few more lands that I can sack to get more value out of Crucible of Worlds , not looking to invest too much money in lands though because of the overall low impact of including those expensive lands ( Cabal Coffers being the only thing I might really want because of its high impact). Three sac lands was really not enough to justify Crucible of Worlds , honestly should've done something about that far sooner.

Going to consider putting Harvester of Souls in the deck, not going to invest in a Damnation however, a bit too expensive for what it does. More likely to run Life's Finale or Necromantic Selection instead if I feel like I need more boardwipes.

Wanted to mention why I run Unstable Obelisk . It's in the deck as a way for me to deal with non-creature permanents, it's more a removal spell that also acts as a mana-rock instead of the other way around. It's also a great bartering tool in my opinion (not to mention Ashes to Ashes is also kinda unattractive since I don't want to exile creatures, I'd rather have them die so I can Eternalize them with The Scarab God ).

I did end up cutting Soul Ransom , but the card was honestly used more to gain card advantage, I was totally fine with people discarding two and letting me draw two (basically Divination and Mind Rot for one card). You can even sack the creature in response to the discard, you still get the cards, but they don't get the creature back. Holding their commander hostage this way is in my opinion pretty good. If you don't draw cards off of it at least you get to have control of the creature, so win-win really (admittedly this card is way worse if they have cards they don't mind discarding in hand, but still, you at least draw two).

What I should've mentioned before is that I'm not too keen on running more tutors. Too many makes the deck too repetitive to play and more importantly, to play against. Friends have already complained about my life-drain combos being a bit much and happening too frequently.

Going infinite is not something I typically look to do either, which is why Gravecrawler is in the maybe section. I know he's incredible, but he kinda feels too easy to exploit, still on the fence about including him.

Overall thank you again for all your ideas, some of the changes you've suggested have helped already and I certainly have plenty of choices to consider now! Feeling a lot more con

SideBae on Scarab God EDH

4 years ago

I'm not sure Cryptbreaker or Skirk Ridge Exhumer are the right way to go; I think tutors tend to be significantly better. Final Parting is good for getting both the reanimation spell and the reanimation target. Ancient Excavation and Frantic Search are good cards I see in your maybeboard; they pitch drawn targets from your hand, while also replacing them with good cards. Mystical Tutor helps to find whatever spell you need to reanimate. Vampiric Tutor is the best, though that card is pushing $70-$80 now.

I feel like the cards you're trying to reanimate are not as powerful as they could be. Grave Titan is great, if only because it gets 10 power on the board immediately, but I don't see all too many other great reanimation targets. Massacre Wurm is a good card, though it can be expensive; Harvester of Souls is also a good target. If you want to reanimate cards like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre , Shallow Grave and Makeshift Mannequin could be useful.

If I may offer some non-reanimation advice:

Gravecrawler is a GREAT card in your maybeboard. It works well with Ashnod's Altar , adding for . If you run something like Skullclamp , it becomes a recurring : Draw two cards. It is worth noting, though, that this does not work if you have a lord on the table pumping your dudes. Furthermore, if you loop it with Phyrexian Altar and Altar of the Brood , you can mill everyone out. Pass the turn and you win.

Graveborn Muse is another good card-draw engine, as are Phyrexian Arena and Staff of Nin . I don't know exactly how wide your deck goes, but if it has a significant number of creatures on the board at any given time, Slate of Ancestry may merit an include.

I also suggest running a few more mana-rocks. Cards like Talisman of Dominance , Mind Stone , Thought Vessel and Coldsteel Heart are good two-mana rocks.

If you run Watery Grave , Sunken Hollow or Fetid Pools , you can fetch them with your Bad River . Running Rocky Tar Pit and Flood Plain can also fetch these duals, and make your mana more consistent. In conjunction with your Crucible of Worlds , these guarantee your land drops. Morphic Pool is an ETB (mostly) untapped land you may want to consider.

Your Fatestitcher would work well with Basalt Monolith or Mana Vault . Mana Vault can be hard to get ahold of, but Basalt Monolith shouldn't be too difficult.

Winds of Rebuke is a good spot-removal spell that also mills you. As a bonus, if you use it after an opponent resolves a Vampiric Tutor or Enlightened Tutor , you can mill their tutor-target. This feels slightly like sneezing slowly and simultaneously winning two discrete lotteries, while at the same time getting a date with your crush. I've done it a few times, and I suggest you try it.

Damnation is a slightly worse version of Toxic Deluge . You might want to consider running it if you need another boardwipe. Windfall works well after an overloaded Cyclonic Rift . Pairing Notion Thief with Windfall gets... interesting.

I suggest Control Magic over Soul Ransom . It doesn't have the drawback of having built-in removal.

Finally, I think you may find Unstable Obelisk somewhat lacking. I suggest replacing it with one of the aforementioned 2-mana rocks, as they are easier to cast. Ashes to Ashes and the like are good ways to remove creatures as two-for-ones.

Good luck with deck building!

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