Sword of the Animist

Legendary Artifact — Equipment

Equipped creature gets +1/+1.

Whenever equipped creature attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.

Equip

Discussion (51)

bushido_man96 on I got 99 swords but feast and famine aint one

2 days ago

jakeyuki12, good points on the lands.

Reliquary Tower would be a good one to go into this deck for one of the other colorless tappers, due to all the card draw. You'll also want more basics to make use of Sword of the Animist, and I don't think you run enough currently to make decent use of that or Isolated Watchtower. Cryptic Caves is ok, but Bonders' Enclave might be better for card draw, if that's what you are wanting. Westvale Abbey  ^Flip seems very out of place here.

Optimator on Giant's Deck

3 weeks ago

So as far as ramp cards I can give you, I have:

Mind Stone - Worn Powerstone - Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip - Prismatic Lens - Darksteel Ingot - Arcane Signet - Boros Signet - Heraldic Banner - Hedron Archive - Talisman of Conviction - Coldsteel Heart - Dreamstone Hedron - Burnished Hart - Commander's Sphere

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Cards I don't have that you may want to consider:

Sword of the Animist - Wayfarer's Bauble - Gilded Lotus - Nyx Lotus - Thran Dynamo - Fire Diamond - Marble Diamond - Solemn Simulacrum (can be thrown with Brion!) - Star Compass - Sisay's Ring - Ur-Golem's Eye - Firemind Vessel - Cloud Key - Empowered Autogenerator - Lavabrink Floodgates - Guardian Idol

I really like Gilded Lotus and Thran Dynamo a lot. This really is a deck where you want to get to 8+ mana.

I would recommend at least ten pieces of ramp, perhaps even twelve. Definitely no fewer than ten in my opinion. Perhaps six that add 1 mana and four than add 2+ mana? Something like that. Getting Brion out a turn early, while not vital, can be convenient as he can pad your life total.

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I would recommend 36-38 lands.

iBurgerKing on Best Red Creature???

3 weeks ago

oshus96 Explorer's Scope would definitely be in here except for the fact Moraug only triggers landfall during the main phase. Unfortunately, this means no extra combat from the scope and is also what keeps Sword of the Animist going pseudo-infinite with Moraug (endless combats until you are out of basics).

StopShot on Opposition Agent needs a preemptive …

3 weeks ago

skoobysnackz, What about Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Ash Barrens, Fabled Passage, Prismatic Vista, Armillary Sphere, Bant Panorama, Esper Panorama, Grixis Panorama, Jund Panorama, Grixis Panorama, Blighted Woodland, Burnished Hart, Expedition Map, Myriad Landscape, Renegade Map, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Solemn Simulacrum, Sword of the Animist, Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip, Thawing Glaciers, Traveler's Amulet, Wanderer's Twig, Wayfarer's Bauble, or Wood Elves?

For some of the casual play groups I’ve been in Opposition Agent would really hose their ability to mana-fix and I can’t think of anything more annoying than sitting on removal you could use to take it out, but not having the right mana to cast it.

MrFuzzykenz on Angels Brought The Apocalypse

4 weeks ago

Thank you for seriously checking out my deck MrKillStar! I happy you enjoy my angel themed deck! Ironically the second theme for this deck is actually board-wipes. While white doesn't have good ramp or card draw they have great board-wipes and many of them.

The reason why I don't have many ramp cards or rocks in this deck is actually because of the board-wipes. There's no point in having mana rocks and ramp spells if I blow them up on my own! Back in my UPDATE: 01/06/20 I actually stopped using board-wipes to include artifacts like Cloud Key, Urza's Incubator, Semblance Anvil, Lifeline, Planar Bridge, and cards like Lightning Greaves to protect the more important angels. And of course I add Sol Ring and other mana rocks like that, however even with all this awesome casting cost reduction I still ran into the problem of drawing cards in white. I would effectively dumb my whole hand successfully but then have to top-deck for the rest of the game, which didn't work out most of the time. Which is why I now have my deck the way it is.

Currently my main source of ramp in this deck is through Sword of the Animist, with a couple tutor cards to find it early Open the Armory and Steelshaper's Gift. However, with the sheer amount of board-wipes that target everything and not just creatures, I can easily sit back and wait to draw mana every turn. I have found when playing this deck with my group of friends that they must kill me early because if they don't I'll have board control and to much life-link to deal with, especially because I'll be nuking the board constantly in tell I'm in the best position.

I've definitely considered Endless Horizons but I think I was using Smothering Tithe instead. I definitely won't use Sunscour because I need all the cards I can get.

I couldn't click on your link to show more card draw artifacts but I'd love to get my hands on them.

MrKillStar on Angels Brought The Apocalypse

1 month ago

I really like Angel themed decks, but the only problem is, most angels are just super expensive and looking at your deck list, there is just no ramp, except very few cards... Im just gonna type some cards, maybe you'll like some, most likely not all of them, just so you have some larger pool of cards to choose from. :)

Myriad Landscape/Burnished Hart is alright; Land Tax is just auto-include in most decks; Caged Sun is also good, but you need to ramp into it somehow; Sword of the Animist is ok, but you need to swing with a creature and there are no Haste enablers (not even Lightning Greaves.

First of all, I would cut exile board wipes, since it just hurts mono-white without ramp the most (Play of the Game and Perilous Vault). You could hold priority and cast Teferi's Protection, but.. dont really know about that... :D

Sunscour should have really good place in mono-white deck.
Endless Horizons - is something like budget of Land Tax, but can also help to thin your deck after you get enough mana on board.
Planar Bridge,Planar Portal,Thran Temporal Gateway,Belbe's Portal,Cryptic Gateway - to either search for anything or put big stuff directly on board. Urza's Incubator should be there to reduce mana cost of your big angels.

worldslayer -> protect your creatures and artifacts: Show

If you run Worldslayer, you might run Darksteel Plate aswell to protect any creature equipped with Worldslayer. I use both in my Very angry child to board wipe every turn with Novablast Wurm. More protection for your creatures and artifacts could be Darksteel Forge+Mycosynth Lattice combo, with Nevinyrral's Disk if you want to board wipe opponent's board every turn.
Cards like Rootborn Defenses to give your creatures indestructible.

Card draw in white isnt the best, so using artifacts is really helpful, both for ramp and card draw: Show

Staff of Nin - Might costs , but if you ramp into it, its 1 extra card every turn + 1 damage ping.
Mind Stone - cheap mana ramp and card what when its not needed anymore.
Hedron Archive/Dreamstone Hedron - small and big version of the same card.
Horn of Greed/Font of Mythos - is also decent option, but affects all players.
Solemn Simulacrum - doesnt really fit Angel themed deck, but helps both with ramp and card draw.

Some mana rocks for sure: Show

Everflowing Chalice - could be used for ramp too.
Sol Ring - would definitely play Sol Ring in a greedy full of big stuff.
Arcane Signet - Since it costs only and doesnt ETB tapped, it work mono colored deck just fine. And white needs that too.
Darksteel Ingot / Skyclave Relic - indestructible 3 mana rocks to survive your board wipes without problem.
Mana Geode - is fairly nice mana rock with Scry 1, so it allows you to manipulate your top deck.
Thought Vessel - another nice 2 mana rock with Reliquary Tower on it.
Pearl Medallion - to make all your white spells cheaper.
Marble Diamond - another 2 mana rock that taps for , but comes into play tapped.

Some ramp with white creatures and spells: Show

I took this from my Celestial Crusade, so you might check that :)
Knight of the White Orchid; Oreskos Explorer; Karoo; Gift of Estates
Settle the Wreckage - is really pretty nice, can be either used to exile opponent's attacking creatures or yours (preferably some 1/1 dorks) to ramp you up a lot.

Tzefick on Sword of Life and Limb

1 month ago

I find it a bit amusing how not two months ago there was posted a thread specifically dedicated to brew card ideas for the remaining 3 Swords of X and Y and then this shows up.

DemonDragonJ I would agree that having three abilities would break the pattern.

Personally I think the life gain is already covered by Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of War and Peace. One static, one dynamic.

There is already token generation with Sword of Body and Mind.

Personally I think the Sword should do something a bit different than that. Please keep in mind that the Swords have generally been designed to be beneficial to most colors and multiple strategies - hence why a Sword like Sword of Body and Mind is generally considered the worst/most niche, closely followed by Sword of War and Peace. The latter because it doesn't affect the board and lifegain is... only relevant in certain situations. If you make a token generator + Populate effect, it works by itself but is generally not useful for many decks.

Take a Sword like Sword of Truth and Justice. It plays well by itself by enabling its own scaling when you have multiple creatures. However you can also utilize the Proliferate on poison counters, -1/-1 counters, planeswalker loyalty counters. It has built-in support for multiple strategies.

A card like Sword of Sinew and Steel is more niche, but it has some very powerful removal effects to compensate. In addition the protections are very on-point in protecting against most targeted removal and all of red's board wipe repertoire.

Tokens for the sake of tokens is often not that impressive. That's why I would suggest to aim for something else than basic token generation.

If you are hellbent on the token generation I would consider granting a different incentive:

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Alternative A Show

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may create a 1/1 green saproling creature token. If you do, then create a copy of a token you control. If you don't, create a Treasure token."

Hmm... I checked the wording on Populate, and for some reason WotC opted to make it copy only creature tokens. The word does make more sense to be used in tandem with creatures but this feels like a missed opportunity.

This grants purpose outside token strategies by giving you the option to opt for just a Treasure token and the swing after, if you kept the Treasure token, you can get another with the copy effect. Because there's a condition on getting some of the effects, I think it'll pass the "only allow 2 effects".

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Alternative B Show

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token. Until the beginning of your next turn, the first spell you cast has Convoke."

This effectively grants you a mana dork (with indirect haste) AND it plays well with broad strategies that is not necessarily token strategies. It grants potential chump blockers to certain decks that can double as mana - alas only for the first spell after the trigger. The card could be buffed a bit by granting convoke to the first spell each turn until your next turn - granting you more flexibility and use of its ability.

I don't think it has the same power level as Sword of Feast and Famine but it is somewhat closer to its power level, which I don't think is a bad place for a Sword to be in.

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If we're being honest, most of the swords don't see play and those that do are mostly Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Fire and Ice. I've seen a fair bit of Sword of Truth and Justice as well. I think hitting around that spot would be ideal.

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If we aim for something else than basic token generation, we could aim for some tech options.

Delve deeper Show

Scout ahead

Green has the ability to look at what's to come and grab specific cards, with cards like Commune with the Gods, Commune with Nature, Commune with Dinosaurs, and many similar. White has had this effect as well, as seen in Acclaimed Contender, Board the Weatherlight, Courageous Outrider, and Militia Bugler. White's piece is more conditional and limited, whereas green is more flexible.

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Treasure generation

White has had treasure generation through taxing with Smothering Tithe. Green is the ramp color. The Sword could possibly create a treasure token.

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Keyword hoarder

White is usually the keyword hoarder, so what if they started being generous? With the introduction of keyword counters from Ikoria with something like Crystalline Giant, the Sword could have a trigger that spreads its keywords to another creature.

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, if equipped creature has flying, you may put a flying counter on target creature. Do the same for deathtouch, double strike, first strike, hexproof, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance. The rest of the ability..."

By itself this doesn't do anything, and usually that would be a deal-breaker as an effect on this card. However I think there are enough Swords that are conditional on something else to get their effect. Usually not something that is particularly difficult to attain. Like Sword of Light and Shadow require a creature card in your graveyard to make use of half its effects.

This ability would also make it stronger in White, as White already has keyword soup creatures where this effect would be very strong, and even more so in Boros. You could use cards with the keywords themselves, equipment or auras that grant it or use buff cards that grant it temporarily. The latter can even be used in tandem with the Sword to permanently grant the equipped creature those keywords.

There are a few evergreen keywords missing, most notably indestructible. But there's also defender (could be used in a Arcades, the Strategist or similar deck to dish out defender counters) and haste (usually wont make a difference after combat step) - yes yes, there's also Flash but who cares when it's on the board. So a way to increase this ability's power could be to include indestructible at the very least.

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Enchantment removal

I went in a big fat circle around this one, as I really don't think enchantment removal should be given on a repeatable colorless source like this. I know Sword of Sinew and Steel does it against artifacts and planeswalkers, and if I'm being frank it would be pretty easy for WotC to throw a Demystify on a Sword and something else and call it a day. However I really hope that wont be the case.

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Brought back

Brought Back but as a delayed trigger without target (to enable that you get back something you lost during combat damage step).

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, at the beginning of your end step you may return a permanent card from your graveyard to the battlefield if it was put there from the battlefield this turn."

It can be utilized much in the same way that Brought Back can. For instance to get back fetching lands or ETB-heavy creatures.

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Land ramp

This one kinda feels like it's impeding on Sword of the Animist's territory, but it is part of green's color pie. It could be differently implemented like:

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal up to one land card and up to one creature, aura, or equipment card from among them and put them into your hand. You may play an additional land this turn."

This is more a soft-ramp that can fail. Instead of granting additional land drops it could just put a found land onto the field tapped.

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a land card from among them and put it onto the battlefield tapped. You may reveal a creature, aura, or equipment card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order."

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Anyway, that's at least a little brainstorming on what else those two colors have to offer.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on I've got crabs...

1 month ago

Very cool deck, I like this. I do have some suggestions for you:

Sword of the Animist is great ramp. Perplexing Chimera is a very annoying card and fits your swap theme. Also, you could try Meloku the Clouded Mirror. If you ever overload on lands and thus can't activate Charix without killing it, you could activate him once or twice.