Stroke of Midnight

Instant

Destroy target nonland permanent. Its controller creates a 1/1 white Human creature token.

Tokens

• Human 1/1 W

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Pre-release	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (29)

Crow_Umbra on Is Enchantment Destruction in Black …

2 months ago

I'm pretty excited for Withering Torment in my Black aligned decks that don't have access to White or Green. Three mana is hefty, but it's not nearly as flexible as something like Stroke of Midnight, for a comparable CMC & rarity. I wouldn't replace Feed the Swarm, but might run it as a compliment in more Grixis leaning color combos.

Picking the option to destroy a creature feels less ideal, especially when compared to other creature-centric removal options in Black like Bitter Triumph, Go for the Throat, or Infernal Grasp. If anything, Withering Torment is just Infernal Grasp with enchantment removal stapled onto it for 1 more mana.

I'm seeing more artifact heavy commanders more frequently in my main play group, like Brenard, Ginger Sculptor, Ygra, Eater of All, a Dr. Who Historic Duo, and Rocco, Street Chef, to name a few. Given this uptick in these varied artifact strats, I'm shifting towards more artifact punishing interaction or removal, than I am enchantment focused stuff.

Crow_Umbra on ....But it happens twice.

2 months ago

All good, happy to help a newer player. What you described sounds like some pretty common issues I encountered pretty early on with Isshin, and still occasionally encounter every so often. In regards to your different points:

1. I think you have a decent enough amount of ramp. I think a couple of things can help further in this regard: changing out your two Signets for other 2 mana rocks like Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Hierarchy, Fellwar Stone, and Arcane Signet. Additionally, I think you can change out your 3 mana rocks like Darksteel Ingot for the stuff I mentioned. I think also trimming some of your higher cost creatures can help. Keeping a low curve can help you redeploy faster, if most of your creatures are in the 1-4 mana range. Etali is fun, but it's super boom or bust.

2. Having a couple more instant speed options to help you against boardwipes can be a huge help. It's not really budget, but Clever Concealment is an excellent option, especially since you will likely have multiple creatures to help cast this with the Convoke mechanic. There are other instant speed "counters" like Tibalt's Trickery and Reprieve which can help.

3. I think Thorough Investigation can be swapped for either Tocasia's Welcome or Chivalric Alliance. It's kinda slow for draw, since you still have to pay mana into the Clue tokens to draw 1 card at a time. Not the most budget, but Skullclamp is an excellent & repeatable option that you can feed some of your 1/1 tokens to. I'd recommend adding in Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, Firemane Commando, and Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser as swaps with your Etali, The Master, and Elder Brain. Those 3 are all splashy, but can sit in your hand if you don't have the mana for them, which relates to some of your mana issues. Nelly, Karazikar, & Firemane all work in conjunction with the Breena you already have in your 99, and can help (or force) aggro away from you.

I think you can and should put Iroas back in there. His Menace anthem also helps to make your board harder to block, which acts as an additional layer of protection. He can help close out games if you have a strong enough board state. I think you can maybe swap him for either Righteous Cause or Blade of Selves.

Some other potential swaps: Bankrupt in Blood can swap out for Deadly Dispute (Lower creature investment needed, instant speed, and nets a treasure). Generous Gift & Stroke of Midnight can swap with any of your more narrowly focused/highly specific removal. The tokens they gift your opponents are largely inconsequential. Soul Partition is another versatile option that can either protect one of your permanents, or (temporarily) remove a threat.

Lastly, I think you can swap Mardu Shadowspear, Pulse Tracker, and Vicious Conquistador for some the 3 creatures I mentioned in bullet 3. I think you're on the right track with their group slug effects, but as smaller 1/1s they are easily blocked and killed. Mostly suggesting this as alternative if you would prefer to keep your 3 higher end creatures I suggested as swaps.

I hope this is all helpful, my apologies for writing you an essay.

DreadKhan on Sisay- CEDH Build

6 months ago

I'm not sure if you should be running that many guild Signets, why not just run more Green ramp that is better at fixing your mana? Artifacts do better in cEDH than more casual games, but you'll be feeding Dockside. I'd even run Talismans over Signets if you feel desperate for 2 mana rocks, Talisman of Indulgence is a more useful card in most situations than Rakdos Signet. Also Fellwar Stone exists fwiw.

Similarly, I'm not sure if you should run ETB tapped Fetches in a cEDH deck, but I will admit the fixing is nice. Stuff like Rocky Tar Pit belong in more casual games, at least in my experience.

I can see you have tons of combos in here, but I can't help but mention Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, she synergizes incredibly well with Sisay, Emiel and a Haste source (like Samut), usually netting you infinite mana and as many cards as you want (by flickering your Sisay, who should be the strongest creature). I only mention it because I think you've got everything Selvala needs to work, and she's a Legendary mana dork that can make any colours of mana.

If you're hoping to play cEDH I would recommend you run at least a couple Counters, some relatively affordable ones (that still hit relevant stuff reliably) are Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse, and maybe Pact of Negation or even Flusterstorm. If these are too pricey you can also try Arcane Denial or Dispel. I would definitely run Dispel over Lightning Greaves in a deck like this, people don't run Sorcery speed answers very often in cEDH, so they'll just wait until you're going to equip the Greaves and then Swords you.

Do you have a plan for Opposition Agent? I feel like if people resolve one you're going to be having a very bad time, unless I'm missing a bunch of removal, and people love Oppo in cEDH. You might consider some of the more versatile removal options, stuff like Generous Gift, Stroke of Midnight, and Beast Within can hit pretty near anything you need gone.

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

7 months ago

First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.

My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.

So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to be broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging. (Spoiler alert we are going infinite)

So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. are fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.

With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.

Token Generators

So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats? EDIT: So as it was pointed out in the comments Oltec only creates copies of TOKEN artifacts. We could use Molten Duplication to create a copy of an artifact, but still Oltec still does great at producing consistent tokens.

Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Also if you need a token for Sunstrike Legionnaire to go infinite you can tap her down (she's only 2 mana) create your 1/1 soldier, untap sunstrike, with Ghired on the field, tap Sunstrike to create infinite lifelink 1/1 soldiers. (actually happened in playtesting)

Generous Plunderer deserves a mention as you really need consistent tokens every turn and this does that. It gives you treasure tokens which is great and is likely to stick around since your opponents like the possibility of getting a treasure token as well. Dockside Extortionist can take the deck to new levels of degeneracy depending on when you play it/number of times you copy it with things like kiki jiki and jaxis.

Selvala, Eager Trailblazer is also great as you get 1/1 creatures every time you cast a creature spell. Her ramp also goes surprisingly well in the deck. I highly recommend it.

Thousand Moons Smithy  ^Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you have a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...

Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them, cast something, and get cascade.

Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.

Doublers

Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).

I ended up starting out with 3 of these and then cut it down to just the two creatures mondrak and ojer taq. Both are still great and can quickly overwhelm the opponent. I found myself holding onto the enchantments in preference to playing token creators and creatures.

Untapping Abilities

Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.

This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one more mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability targeting sparring mummy, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)

Don't got too heavy on these or you won't have enough tokens to copy.

Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).

Interaction, ramp, card draw

Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).

Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).

Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.

Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.

Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.

I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned. Also feel free to mention commanders you want to see built. I have a couple in mind to start but want to see suggestions as well.

Here is the final decklist: Ghired the infinite outlaw

Last_Laugh on All Will Be One

7 months ago

I'd personally suggest cutting:

Viral Drake for Danny Pink

Guildpact Informant for Mutational Advantage

Lux Cannon for Beast Within

Atomize for Generous Gift or Stroke of Midnight

Juniper Order Ranger for Anduril, Narsil Reforged

Fuel for the Cause for Felidar Retreat

Tamiyo, Field Researcher for Marcus, Mutant Mayor

Otherworld Atlas for Breena, the Demagogue (make em earn the group huggy card draw)

Also consider Wave Goodbye and Ripples of Potential if you own them or they're in your budget.

Last_Laugh on Kalonian Hydra or Bristly Bill?

7 months ago

I'd personally suggest cutting:

Viral Drake for Danny Pink

Guildpact Informant for Mutational Advantage

Lux Cannon for Beast Within

Atomize for Generous Gift or Stroke of Midnight

Juniper Order Ranger for Anduril, Narsil Reforged

Fuel for the Cause for Felidar Retreat

Tamiyo, Field Researcher for Marcus, Mutant Mayor

Otherworld Atlas for Breena, the Demagogue (make em earn the group huggy card draw)

Also consider Wave Goodbye and Ripples of Potential if you own them or they're in your budget.

*copied and pasted onto your deck

NensouHiebara on Halvar, Divine Voltron

9 months ago

@Spyrechild

Thousand Moons Smithy  ^Flip has been fine. It can be tricky to transform sometimes when I need specific creatures left untapped or need to attack with.

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@gzusvictory

Definitely replacing Stroke of Midnight with Unexplained Absence.

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@CrimsonWings3689

I really like Codsworth and I'll try to find a spot for it. A big improvement over cards like Brass Squire.

gzusvictory on Halvar, Divine Voltron

9 months ago

Thoughts on Unexplained Absence?

I am thinking it would replace Stroke of Midnight or Generous Gift since it exiles and can hit multiple creatures for one more mana.