Survival of the Fittest

Enchantment

{G}, Discard a creature card: Search your library for a creature card, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

Archegos on Tempus Necandi - Saskia EDH (Lingua Latina)

1 month ago

@IncendoRuina Lepidum nōmen! I like the Sigarda's Vanguard recommendation. It's a lot easier to cast (and at only 5 mana) and doesn't get telegraphed the same way. I'll pick her up and try her out. I'll think about a creature tutor package like the one you suggest. I happen to have a Survival of the Fittest that I can run if I decide to double down on utility over aggression.

@legendofa Gratias pro tua annotatione! Translatio de Google multo melior facta est! I definitely recommend learning Latin. Gaudium est, et mihi perplacet. I'll have to think of good ideas for another Latin commander - Licia, Sanguine Tribune comes to mind. Any others?

@CommanderNeyo Thank you! I just added Adeline, Resplendent Cathar myself, and I'm very happy with her. Fiery Emancipation is a fun idea. A six mana non-creature with 3 red pips has me wary, but it's true that the card is absolutely busted by itself and broken in half with Saskia in play. Reading these comments, I think I will definitely add more creature tutors, and I totally agree about Pathbreaker Ibex. Ibex is already Ibex in Latin!

AstroAA on Should I Keep Luminarch Ascension …

3 months ago

Luminarch Ascension is just slow. I used to run it in my Sythis, Harvest's Hand enchantress prison deck as a backup method to get beaters out, and most of the time I'd play it and it'd just sit there as I'd use my mana for other things. It's not worth it most of the time.

I do not know why you aren't already running Esper Sentinel. In your deck you're running a bunch of anthems, and Esper Sentinel can easily draw you a ridiculous amount of cards rather quickly if his tax gets up to 4~5 mana. He's easily one of the best white cards in Magic, and your deck seems likely to support him. Plus he's only one mana, and you have an absolutely ridiculous CMC of 3.87 with only seven mana rocks - two of which are 4+ CMC.

My advice? Fuck Smothering Tithe. I personally think the card is overrated and is one of the most "kill on sight" cards in Magic. A quarter of the time you play it and it's countered. Another quarter of the time you play it and it gets blown up immediately. Another quarter of the time you play it and it does nothing. The last quarter of the time it does something. If you wanted to play some cheaper "kill on sight" cards to bait out counter magic and kill spells, Food Chain, Survival of the Fittest, and even something like Grafdigger's Cage against certain decks. But, take what I say here with a grain of salt - I just don't like Smothering Tithe, and I think the CMC of it won't help you that much since you don't run a lot of ramp. I'd honestly rather run Yasharn, Implacable Earth over Smothering Tithe in your deck right now.

Now, you asked for feedback and suggestions, so here are my main suggestions. I'm not sure your budget, but considering you're asking us to decide between two $20~$30 cards, I'll assume it's higher than the average Magic player's. Here is a basic list of things you can do to improve your deck:

• Go through your deck and individually look at every card in it. Think to yourself "How often do I play this card? Does this card make an impact whenever I play it? Is it just immediately answered? How does this fit into my game plan?" etc. Cut cards that you think aren't up to par or properly fit into your deck.
• Your deck seems to lack a proper direction. You say you want to pillowfort and focus on building up an army. Cards like Windborn Muse and Ghostly Prison can help you prevent people from swinging at you. If you wanted to prevent people from swinging at all, Crawlspace and Dueling Grounds can work, and you can just pop them with a Nature's Claim or something before you want to start attacking. If you wanted to focus more on the army aspect, you could go with stuff like Avenger of Zendikar, Rhys the Redeemed, or Tendershoot Dryad.
• Lower your Converted Mana Cost. You currently have a CMC of 3.87, which is rather high. In addition, you are only running seven pieces of ramp - all mana rocks - and two of them are four or more CMC, which does not help you much. Cut cards that don't do much and replace them with either cheaper mana rocks or mana dorks. A few that I immediately see that I would cut are cards like Treva, the Renewer, Skyward Eye Prophets, Empyrial Archangel, and Archon of the Triumvirate. Cards you should add are like Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Sylvan Caryatid, and Noble Hierarch. This will lower your CMC and provide additional mana ramp.
• Lands. You are currently running 38 lands, which is definitely on the high end. However, I think this is a product of having a CMC of 3.87. I think should you end up reducing your CMC to around 2.75 to 3.00 while adding in at least ~7 sources of mana acceleration you can go down to 32~33 lands, which is much more reasonable. However, I also want to talk about your land choices. You aren't running any fetches and many of your lands have a chance to enter tapped. I would look at adding in more fetches such as Prismatic Vista, Windswept Heath, Misty Rainforest, and Flooded Strand at least. In addition, I'd also look at lands such as City of Brass, Mystic Confluence, and the Battlebond lands such as Bountiful Promenade, Rejuvenating Springs, and Sea of Clouds should you reliably play with 3+ people pods. Cut cards like Seaside Citadel and the check lands, as they're kind of feelsbad turn one plays.
• Removal. You aren't running much removal to deal with threats. Cheap removal such as Nature's Claim, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Return to Nature, and On Thin Ice are all super good in EDH. I would definitely look at improving your removal suite outside of 3+ mana counterspells. Also, look at cheaper counterspells. Cards like Mana Drain would be super good here as it provides you mana acceleration while stopping your opponents.

There is more I would like to add, such as talking more about card advantage, but I've spent damn near close to an hour typing this so I'm gonna call it here. Now, take what I've said with a grain of salt. I'm a high-powered player; I like to optimize my decks, and with optimization comes homogenization. I.e; your decks become less unique. You've got a pretty unique deck here, and if you like it then you like it. Ultimately it's up to you on making that call of whether or not you want to optimize and change everything. If you need more help, feel free to ask. Good luck, and sorry for the wall of text.

Zuacamole on The Green Wumbo

5 months ago

FaiberJC

I do have this deck in paper and it over performs most games to be honest. It’s not cEDH buts it can play very close to it with the right hand.

As for replacements Boseiju, Who Endures can be replaced with Nature's Claim

Phytoburst can be replaced with a lot of things I’ve debated Boon of Boseiju recently

Survival of the Fittest can be replaced with Fauna Shaman although it isn’t nearly as powerful

Tamiyo's Safekeeping has a ton of potential replacements buts it’s super cheap and a common from the most recent set and I think it’s worth picking up

As for Gaea's Cradle the deck runs fine without it. I just added it in about a two weeks ago. It’s not necessary I just wanted to get one

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is super strong card with paired with Arbor Elf because you can untap any of your lands including Wirewood Lodge the untap selvala a second time.

Mana Crypt can be replaced with Ancient Tomb maybe? But there really isn’t a replacement same goes for Jeweled Lotus I would recommend just adding more ramp or lands to balance out the mana count in the deck if you had to go without them.

SueMe on Hogaak: My Favorite (Infinite) Combo Deck

6 months ago

Hey Carrick142857, some interesting thoughts!

The general gist of K'rrik is to make Hogaak even cheaper (8/8 for mill plus life), since having untapped creatures is the limiting factor much of the time. Besides that, he's also pretty decent for ramping out all our other black spells.

Survival of the Fittest eh? Well, it's certainly out of my budget (I still only own 2 of the 7 fetches in paper... I know, yikes!).... But I suppose it makes a solid Maybeboard addition, for the semi-cdh players out there.

I like the idea behind Dryad's Revival! It's just a bit slow for the effect it gives. If I had to choose, I think I'd add in Creeping Renaissance or Diregraf Rebirth instead.

grimcase21 on Varolz, the Scar-Striped EDH - Competitive

6 months ago

If you are still looking to improve the deck, I've also been working on this deck for a long long time (when the card came out). I've always like the voltron big swing style as it was unique to commander, but my deck is solely for 1v1 and does not work very well in multiplayer. Here is a list of cards that I would recommend that have worked wonders for me.

Budget options

Tainted Strike - 2nd berserk (if you're ok with infect)

Belt of Giant Strength - after you scavenge, 2 mana equipment, free equip for another 8 power

Not of This World - my secret tech, after you make it big it's free

Veil of Summer - with this style of deck protection is very important

Sylvan Safekeeper - free protection that they constantly have to respect Wild Shape - flexible, mostly used for hexproof or trample

Jarad's Orders - the 2nd best tutor after buried alive, because there will be 2 creatures you always search for and it's on curve. you always look for Elvish Spirit Guide and Phyrexian Dreadnought. Phyrexian Dreadnought goes to graveyard and Elvish Spirit Guide goes to hand, exile, scavenge, swing with 14 power on turn 3-4.

Unmarked Grave - entomb #2

Demonic Embrace - you can entomb this and give you commander evasion and +3/+1.

Bramblewood Paragon - play this turn 2, minor buff counter, and gives trample because Varolz, the Scar-Striped is a warrior

Rancor - buff and trample, you need to get through

Destiny Spinner - one of the few ways green has to fight counters

Solidarity of Heroes - 2 mana double the 12/13 counters

Wild Growth - it may not be a creature, but it does get our commander out on turn 2

Mausoleum Secrets - 2 mana instant demonic tutor, you sac a dork in response, go find Phyrexian Dreadnought/Death's Shadow, protection spell, or in 99% of cases that I use this one is Berserk

Non-budget additions

Elvish Spirit Guide - serves 2 purposes, the Jarad's Orders trick and making all your turn 2 plays turn 1 (like Sylvan Library), you can also end the Survival of the Fittest chain with elvish spirit guide to do the same trick

Sylvan Safekeeper - free protection that they must always respect, it's very good

Collective Brutality - I value discard highly in 1v1. It also allows you to ditch your scavenge target from your hand to the graveyard while seeing the coast is clear. But in multiplayer, less useful.

Lightning Greaves - haste and protection, yes plz

Dismember - takes care of many of the early problematic targets

super non-budget

Hatred - 1 card win with commander

Necropotence - sculpt your hand for next turn kill

Cards that I would recommend reconsidering/taking out

Harmonize - a bit too slow imo

Arbor Elf - the amount of targets you actually have isn't enough to make it consistent

Asceticism - a bit too slow, you only care about the creature you scavenge on so in terms of mana efficiency something like Sylvan Safekeeper or Lightning Greaves

Quirion Elves/Devoted Druid - we want to go 1->3 mana, so we get our commander out on turn 2, this doesn't help to do that

Frank_Glascock on The Great mutation

6 months ago

39 creatures and no Craterhoof Behemoth? You could add some creatures tutors like Survival of the Fittest, Worldly Tutor, Fauna Shaman and possibly something like Birthing Pod.

Niko9 on You Totally Got This...! (Attacks Alone)

6 months ago

Ha, thanks! It's definitely one of those ones that I started throwing together from cards I had, and it actually worked, which is nice because that's not always the case. Just glad I didn't have to buy a lot of stuff for it : )

I'd really like to make a deck for Guardians of Oboro but haven't wrapped my head around it yet. Moonfolk samurai is just too cool of a combination of words : ) But what to actually do with it is the big question mark.

And yep, Warrior Angel is my favorite from a long time ago. I got started playing around Stronghold and was like, meh Sliver Queen, meh Mox Diamond, meh Survival of the Fittest, I'm using Warrior Angel Maybe would have regretted it, but warrior angel is still the coolest to this day, for me at least : )

AstroAA on Sythis' Beautiful Lands

6 months ago

Hello!

You aren't running any sac outlets outside of Elvish Reclaimer which only hits lands, so I'd advise cutting Pattern of Rebirth as it doesn't really do you any good just sitting on a creature. I'm not sure what your budget is, but I'd recommend running Survival of the Fittest instead. It's cheaper CMC-wise, but tutors to hand instead of the battlefield. You could also run Chord of Calling which tutors to the battlefield, but is an instant.

In addition, I have personally found Smothering Tithe to not really be worth it. The treasure tokens you get from it are shut off by Collector Ouphe and Stony Silence. You could replace it with something like Carpet of Flowers which can generate mana for you, albeit it's dependent on other decks at the table. At it's worst though it's a one mana enchantment, which with any of your enchantresses out can still draw you a card. You could also go with something like Flickering Ward or Whip Silk which are both one mana enchantments that can bounce themselves, allowing you to draw more cards from them for pretty cheap if you have enchantress effects out.

I've ran a Sythis, Harvest's Hand deck since she was spoiled, so if you have any other questions on cards feel free to hit me up. Albeit, I will say - I go a completely different route you're going with your deck. Instead of trying to draw my deck and ramp as quickly as I can, I try to slow the game down as much as possible and keep opponents from being able to play Magic. I've found great success with my list, so I'd recommend checking it out if you're interested. My deck can be found here: [EDH][Primer] Sythis Enchantress Prison. As I said, if you have any questions or need help with it, feel free to hit me up!