Spore Frog

Creature — Frog

Sacrifice Spore Frog: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.

Discussion (50)

BrassLord on meren of clan

2 weeks ago

Sakura-Tribe Elder feels like it should have a home in here! And I've been on the receiving end of a recurring Spore Frog enough to tell you that the frog can put in some work!

Jack32226 on Rot and Ruin (Muldrotha EDH)

4 weeks ago

As an added note about the Glacial Chasm deliberation, Glacial Chasm only protects yourself from damage, whereas Spore Frog can protect anyone from combat damage if you choose to do so. This can be important for political reasons, but is also important for "whenever [creature] deals combat damage to a player" triggers. It might seem like a small detail, but my meta has an Inalla, Archmage Ritualist deck that aims to take infinite turns through Wanderwine Prophets . With Frog, this game plan is stopped in its tracks, whereas Glacial Chasm still allows that player to take several extra turns to find an answer and win by simply attacking other players. Not applicable to everyone (and I don't play against the deck every game), but it's still some food for thought.

abby315 on Riku! Reku! Rikoo!

1 month ago

Here are my picks for weakest cards, without much justification except that for the most part I don't see them doing anything important with Riku, too expensive for what they do, or are too specific:

Spore Frog
Animist's Awakening
Desperate Ritual
Parcelbeast
Reshape the Earth
Sakura-Tribe Scout
Savage Ventmaw
Seething Song
Deconstruct
Hypergenesis
Sunbird's Invocation
Pull from the Deep Volcanic Vision
Wild Ricochet
Hazoret's Undying Fury
Brainstorm
Surrak Dragonclaw
Swarm Intelligence
Dual Casting
Volcanic Torrent
Decimate (since you need all legal targets, it can be awk to cascade into this one)
Amulet of Vigor
Trinket Mage
Murkfiend Liege
Wort, the Raidmother
Mana Reflection
Genesis Ultimatum
Cast Through Time

And I'm also recommending cutting all of your X spells that can be hit and missed with Cascade: Electrodominance
Genesis Wave

However, I'll echo what another commenter said in that cascade doesn't interact with Riku all that much. I mean, you can copy the permanents or spells cast off of Cascade, but you can't meaningfully copy the Cascade cards. You could choose to cut the Cascade package instead. It's up to you and what you want to play.

So that's my first evil pass at 30 cuts. :)

Jack32226 on Rot and Ruin (Muldrotha EDH)

1 month ago

Thank you for the suggestions kpres!

I'll go ahead and say that a few of the cards you suggested are cards I've already been considering. Many of the other cards are cards that I don't include for meta reasons. I'll try to explain my thoughts on these cards in the order you suggested them.

Also, as a quick disclaimer, I should explain something a little counter-intuitive about the deck. In my deliberations of the cards you suggested, I often bring up tempo issues with mana costs being too high. Although this deck's goal is to make very large amounts of mana for X spells, I am attempting to do so in a relatively fast-paced meta. Intuitively, high costed cards shouldn't be an issue if I plan to make lots of mana. However, I can only afford to spend large amounts of mana once I've reached a critical mass of ramp. Once I reach that critical mass, the deck wants to win as soon as possible via X spells. Due to that fact, the deck is pretty polarized with how much mana I spend on any one card. For the most part, I don't like investing any more than four mana for a card before hitting that critical mass (the biggest exception being Muldrotha if I can afford it) and, of those cards, they should be immediately impactful or help to reach that critical mass. Once I reach the critical mass, then the new plan becomes dumping 10+ mana into powerful game winning cards.

Kodama of the East Tree - This card is definitely powerful and I highly suggest it for more casual metas! Unfortunately for my meta, it's a little too slow. As you said, it could replace something for putting down extra lands. What options I have now though are either low cost (and can therefore be acknowledged as early game ramp), or serves a second purpose such as card draw. I think this card shines more in creature-based strategies, where cheating things in directly pressures your opponents rather than bides for time. For this deck however, where many of my removal options are low-costed anyway, the six mana investment for Kodama doesn't pay off nearly as fast as I would like.

Second Chance - My original list had Second Chance with Necropotence to bring me down to 5 life. While this is certainly effective, personally I found that it wasn't a fun way to win (for me or my opponents). Not much of a criticism, I know. If I had to criticize it though, its main downside is that it's a completely dead card until it wins. It can even be a liability against less experienced opponents who might rush to kill you out of panic. It's certainly still a good win condition; it's not in my deck out of personal preference.

Glacial Chasm - I've been considering this card for a long while now as a replacement for Spore Frog . It covers the frog's two weaknesses: not being able to fog multiple opponents and not preventing noncombat damage. The reason I haven't included it thus far is because contrary to frog, Glacial Chasm is not a neutral deterrent. Whether you pay the cumulative upkeep or replay it by saccing a land, you are paying a price. For my particular meta, combat is mostly meant for small amounts of chip damage rather than large attacks. For that reason, frog simply sitting on the board is enough to stop that incoming damage; there's not much reason to replay it. The only exception to that is a dastardly Kaalia of the Vast deck I play against, but frog is a good enough answer for that deck. It's a bit of a tossup for this list whether it's worth running, but in other metas it might be a good idea to run both.

Tormod, the Desecrator - If you're playing a creature-based deck or if you want a more drawn-out win con this card is pretty decent. However in this deck, it doesn't quite fit the theme. With a lack of sac outlets, the card doesn't synergize with most of the deck either.

Insidious Dreams - You're absolutely right about the synergy with Windfall , it's very powerful in most metas. My one gripe with the card, and the reason why I can't run it in my meta, is discarding is part of the cost. Unfortunately, there is way too much counter magic for me to play this reliably. Paying four mana to One with Nothing myself would be too common an occurrence.

Forgotten Creation - A good alternative to Jace's Archivist . I can't really justify running both though, I don't find myself needing wheels all that often. The reason I run Archivist instead of this is flexibility. Archivist can be used anytime rather than just at your upkeep, it can interrupt your opponents' hands at instant speed, and it shuts down your opponents when combined with Narset, Parter of Veils or Notion Thief . Otherwise, Forgotten Creation is a great card and is perfectly viable for Muldrotha.

Skull Prophet - I can't say I'm a fan of ramp spells that require decent fixing to cast. Simply because of that, I feel all the ramp I'm currently running is good enough to make up for the mill. I will admit though that at the time of this comment I have Coiling Oracle in the deck, which is somewhat hypocritical. I hope to revise the deck soon though, and I plan to take Oracle out.

Night Incarnate - Another card I've been on the fence about for a while. As I've mentioned, there isn't necessarily a whole lot of combat in my meta, and of the decks that do use combat, none of them use a "go wide" strategy. The impact of Night Incarnate then is not as big as I usually would like. That being said, there are still a number of value engines and mana dorks that this card does remove. I can certainly imagine adding the card to the deck in the future if I start encountering more small creatures in my meta.

Tunnel Vision - Tunnel Vision is certainly a fun card, but it's a little too slow for my taste. This is especially clear when you compare it to Hermit Druid . Hermit Druid can be used repeatedly, can mill my whole library so long as I fetch all my basics, and can be immediately useful even if I don't have Muldrotha (since the basic land goes to my hand rather than the top of my library). Hermit Druid also costs 2 mana and can be replayed with Muldrotha if need be. In more casual metas, Tunnel Vision can be used more effectively, but I would still recommend Hermit Druid over it if you're not including both.

Sewer Nemesis - I don't like this card for a few reasons. For four mana, I think the card is overcosted. The mill effect is not very substantial, requiring you to cast several spells to make good use of it (and if you have the ability to cast that many spells, you're probably in a really good place anyway). Probably the biggest problem I have with it is that it doesn't have any form of evasion, so opponents can easily chump block it. Also, in a meta with plenty of graveyard hate, this creature can be removed from the board very efficiently. For your own deck, I would actually recommend Splinterfright as a replacement. It only gets bigger from creature cards, but I think the addition of trample more than makes up for it.

Raven's Crime - Now here's a card I haven't actually considered before. Looking at it now though, I really like it. The only potential downside is that my meta (especially with that Kaalia player I mentioned before), has a habit of running lots of recursion effects like Reanimate and Animate Dead that greatly benefit from being able to discard large creatures from hand. In spite of that, Raven's Crime is low costed, has great synergy with the rest of the deck, and can disrupt opponents effectively. I'll have to pick myself up a copy and playtest it. It's not really a clear upgrade to any one card in the deck, so I'd have to think about what to take out for it.

Magus of the Will - I like Magus, but not for the reason you specified. I feel like I have enough recursion effects for my X spells as is. What I like about Magus though, is that it provides an earlier, cheaper alternative to Muldrotha for a turn. It's not uncommon that I have to go a while without casting Muldrotha because I can't afford to dump 6 mana into her. The reason I haven't included it thus far is because of the exile clause for cards entering your graveyard that turn, and that it is still rather expensive to use this card. It's still a 6 mana investment, just split across two different turns. As it stands, it's a good tech card, but in practice it's a bit of an awkward card to set up. Spending 3 mana with no immediate effect is usually bad, but if you don't do that, you can't use the card immediately for an emergency. For that reason I haven't included it, but I would still recommend it for other Muldrotha players.

RA_HORAKHTE on Plunder the Sickness Part 2: Infectious Boogaloo

1 month ago

Hi Jagd_Tallgeese, nice Meren deck, and very different to the basic decklist many people usually have, keep it going!!!

I also play Meren of Clan Nel Toth since it came out in 2015, (but just the normal Meren sacrifice engine toolbox version)

Important things I see you could improve to make the deck more efficient while keeping your original infect version. For example, Commander's Sphere may look OK in any other deck, but what if you change it for something like Dawntreader Elk or Wood Elves ? you will ramp too, but also can use those creatures as sacrifice fodder, recover them from the graveyard... same with Go for the Throat , instead you could use a creature like Ravenous Chupacabra , and abuse of it dying and returning multiple times... and so with as much as non creature cards in the deck. Some like the altars are awesome, you should keep them. Also, remember that you are running cards like Living Dead, you should abuse of as many creatures as posible, to reanimate tons of them!

Maybe my deck can help you, I keep in mind you want an Infect build, so just take ideas in the non infect part of the deck (ramp/removal/card draw, etc): MEREN: THE NATURE'S CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH

Now, thinking on infect, you could add the new Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider : He doesn't infect per se, but will do two important things: Double Meren Experience counters, and double enemy infect counters. And is flavor win since he is a phyrexian.

More suggestions for the deck base (mana/removal/advantage) just to name them:

Spore Frog (Just broken with Meren. Some players even prefer not use it for considering it unfair)

Apprentice Necromancer (Surprise infect with haste! And another sacrifice engine)

Fauna Shaman (Fill your graveyard to reanimate later, while you search a ramp creature, a removal creature or in your case, your best infect creatures!)

Fiend Artisan and Birthing Pod (Similars to fauna shaman, but are a sacrifice engines ideal for Meren experience)

Caustic Caterpillar , Reclamation Sage (Removals in a creature)

Victimize (In other deck, nice. In Meren, broken. Also, think in the synergy with something like your skullwinder or your Eternal witness)

Phyrexian Tower Is powerful, will give you mana and sacrifice engine, but most important: Is phyrexian flavor for infect.

Polaris on Stack questions

1 month ago

Yes, he can, for two reasons. One is that all players can cast instants and activate abilities in response to a spell or ability, even if that spell is an instant. For example, if you were targeting a Spore Frog with your Lightning Bolt , the opponent could respond by sacrificing it before Bolt resolved.

The second reason is that abilities that produce mana (mana abilities) don't use the stack at all. They can be used at pretty much any time and there's almost no way to disrupt them. However, mana drains from your mana pool at the end of each step, so the opponent only has that untap step to use the mana Birds of Paradise produced (meaning they can probably only use it for an instant or instant-speed ability).

As a side note, you typically can't take any actions during the untap step, barring something triggering during untap. Normally you'd have to wait until you got priority during their upkeep to Bolt the Bird.

BrassLord on Rhonas Paper

1 month ago

Cool deck! Very similar to a Questing Beast deck I run in paper. I've had a lot of fun with Rhonas the Indomitable and fight effects or cards like Nature's Way or Ram Through . Green removal spells with upsides!

For an even more grindy game, Genesis to get back Spore Frog can be a problem for other creature based decks. Love me some Spore Frog !

whatqwerty on Karador EDH Deck (Hulk/Boonweaver Combo's …

3 months ago

Other than that, reducing stax effects, like Eidolon of Rhetoric could lower the power level of your deck.

Also there are some cards I can think of that you could look at that would help lower the power level while still being fun and I would say powerful: Caustic Caterpillar, Vivien's Arkbow, Spore Frog, and Greenseeker.