Sylvan Caryatid

Creature — Plant

Defender, hexproof

{T}: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

Discussion (49)

MonkeySit on Arcades - Cheap Thrills

1 month ago

Marble Titan , Axebane Guardian , Angelic Chorus , Colossus of Akros , Mentor of the Meek , Mindbender Spores , Sunscape Familiar , Sylvan Caryatid

gdemay on Bant Wall Beat Down

1 month ago

Sylvan Caryatid is important to get mana setup and I believe should be a staple in a bant defender deck. It is a defenders deck's Birds of Paradise . The hexproof makes it hard to remove and it can be targeted by it's controller "unlike creatures with shroud." This means Assault Formation can target it. Other cards that may help your strategy are Shape the Sands , and these four creatures even though they don't have defender Abzan Beastmaster , Benthic Infiltrator , Elusive Krasis and Dragon's Eye Savants .

Jack-Frost on Who You Calling A Fossil?

2 months ago

Actually, I will give a few thoughts.

The Immortal Sun - What does this do for your deck or game plan? It tries to do a lot but instead only does a little of a bunch of things for too high of a cost.

Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Doesn't do enough and costs extra every time you want to activate it. Instead run Elemental Bond or Guardian Project .

Rishkar's Expertise - Most of your creatures are going to cost more than it can provide, so it's honestly not worth it. Look into Sylvan Library and Colossal Majesty instead.

Harmonize - I'm not a fan of paying mana to draw cards as it tends to kill most of what you were going to do on your turn. Instead look into cards like Defense of the Heart or Descendants' Path .

Decimate - Zacama, Primal Calamity should take care of most of your artifact and enchantment destruction on his own, making this redundant, but this card also comes with the unfortunate problem that you can ONLY cast it if you have viable creature, artifact, enchantment, AND land targets. If you are missing any one of the 4 it's a dead card, and if one of those 4 is your own then you're forced to destroy that. Now, if you find that you really need more artifact and enchantment hate look into cards like Krosan Grip or Force of Vigor .

Savage Stomp - Why would you risk your creatures with this? If you are able to target them then you already have removal in the form of Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares , not to mention Zacama, Primal Calamity ability to deal damage to creatures. If your opponent has a combat trick then you just lost your creature. It's a gimmicky card and I think there are better things you can do with the card slot in your deck. For example, Aggravated Assault or Reckless Assault will give you multiple combats which will really let you bring the full power of your dinosaurs to bear without giving your opponents time to recover.

Commune with Dinosaurs - A waste. Run Sylvan Library or Sensei's Divining Top for much better and more consistent effects.

Priest of the Wakening Sun - Why? If you need a fetch then run cards like Worldly Tutor , Finale of Devastation or Chord of Calling . If you need lifegain there are plenty of better sources. This just reveals cards in your hand to your opponents, gains a tiny bit of life, and kills an entire turn with your expensive fetch.

Atzocan Seer - Skip the returning Dinosaurs. You're a creature deck, and a big one at that. Just focus on constantly dropping big creatures and hitting your opponent, putting so much pressure on them that they don't have time to worry about strategy. Aggro decks don't really worry about their graveyard. As for the mana, you'd be far better served with Birds of Paradise or Sylvan Caryatid , or if you go non-budget then Bloom Tender .

Drover of the Mighty - Why do you care how big your mana dork is? You shouldn't be swinging with him anyway. Grab a Birds of Paradise or a Sylvan Caryatid instead.

Gigantosaurus - I'm honestly really not a fan of anything that costs 5 of the same color. This pretty much kills anything else you were planning on doing on your turn, which is absolutely not what you want to have happen. Sure it's a 10/10, but it's really not worth that downside, especially without trample. Look at Carnage Tyrant for a fantastic alternative.

Kinjalli's Sunwing - This draws unnecessary hate and really doesn't help your game out that much. You have a deck of giant dinosaurs. This shouldn't be an issue. If you really feel you need it then look into Authority of the Consuls or Urabrask the Hidden instead.

Runic Armasaur - Too specific and unreliable. There are better uses for the card slot.

Sakura-Tribe Elder - While a good card, your deck can't take full advantage of this and would be better off running land fetches like Tempt with Discovery , Nature's Lore , or Skyshroud Claim , all of which are better and come out untapped.

Samut, Voice of Dissent - Why in heaven's name are you running this? This card is awful? If it's for the haste then there are tons of better cards. Look at Fervor , Rhythm of the Wild , or Fires of Yavimaya . Even Urabrask the Hidden would be a better way to spend 5 mana. Is it for the untap effect? There are still much better options such as Seedborn Muse . This card burns 5 mana for no good reason. No. Just no.

Shalai, Voice of Plenty - Meh. I'd run Leyline of Sanctity or Privileged Position instead. Asceticism , Archetype of Endurance , and Sterling Grove are other good options. All are harder to hit and kill. It's nice but overall i'd run the alternatives instead.

Shifting Ceratops - Doesn't do enough. It's nice but not good enough overall.

Territorial Hammerskull - While not inherently bad, it's also just "meh". It's okay. I'd rather have cards that give your creatures trample and just march your dinosaurs through your opponents, and/or bigger and better creatures.

Thrashing Brontodon - This is redundant with Zacama, Primal Calamity and you'd be better served with instants like Krosan Grip or Force of Vigor .

Hull Breach - Force of Vigor is a better alternative to this that also has instant speed.

Jaya, Venerated Firemage - Why? This is a waste of a good slot. Run Warstorm Surge and get a far better effect than her. If you want more damage then run Dictate of the Twin Gods . She's really not worth it.

Samut, Tyrant Smasher - This card is awful. Run any, and I mean any haste enabler instead. Her negative is awful and her passive is better on any other card. Honestly, run Xenagos, God of Revels . He's amazing, gives haste, doubles a creature's power, and add's their power to their toughness.

Temple of the False God - I've taken this out of most, if not all, of my decks by now. It's not great honestly. It seems really good, but if you get it early game then it's a dead land that stares up into you and slowly seeps the joy out of your soul, and if you get it late game then it's just an extra mana that really doesn't matter to you.

CheeseE on Gruul Ramp (NEED HELP IMPROVING)

2 months ago

So yes, I would say that things like Utopia Sprawl , Birds of Paradise , Sylvan Caryatid (which also let you splash other colors if you want), and Arbor Elf (good with Utopia Sprawl ) are stronger than any ramp over 2 CMC.

As for control... Your creatures seem to be really strong against targeted removal, but the main thing that concerns me is the weakness to boardwipes. This is yet another reason to increase your deck-speed, and maybe find ramp payoffs that can go under higher-costed boardwipes. Bloodbraid Elf is particularly strong- probably better than absurdly-costed Gaea's Revenge . Treetop Village is also a great way to bounce back from boardwipes imo.

CheeseE on Gruul Ramp (NEED HELP IMPROVING)

2 months ago

So yes, I would say that things like Utopia Sprawl , Birds of Paradise , Sylvan Caryatid (which also let you splash other colors if you want), and Arbor Elf (good with Utopia Sprawl ) are stronger than any ramp over 2 CMC.

As for control... Your creatures seem to be really strong against targeted removal, but the main thing that concerns me is the weakness to boardwipes. This is yet another reason to increase your deck-speed, and maybe find ramp payoffs that can go under higher-costed boardwipes. Bloodbraid Elf is particularly strong- probably better than absurdly-costed Gaea's Revenge . Treetop Village is also a great way to bounce back from boardwipes imo.

TrumpZone on Gruul Ramp (NEED HELP IMPROVING)

2 months ago

So CheeseE, should I replace some Explosive Vegetation and Gift of Paradise with cheaper options, like Sylvan Caryatid ? My goal is to make the deck somewhat more competitive, but not to a crazy level. The decks I build are mainly budget decks I use to compete with my friends. So while it should be good, it also should be somewhat inexpensive.

I was also wondering if you think the deck's defense against control is strong enough. One of the main goals of this deck is to shut down control, but I'm not sure it accomplishes this. Is there anything I should do to improve it in this regard?

jakeelephant006 on Uril, Ultimate Bench-Presser

2 months ago

This deck seems to have a couple of weird things and a couple of holes in it. First off, your ramp seems to be through the roof and I don't really see why that's necessary. I would recommend cutting some of, if not all, the cluestones or maybe a sorcery speed ramp spell. Maybe consider switching one of your current sorceries for a Skyshroud Claim and probably switch Druid of the Anima for Sylvan Caryatid . Related to this is your current lack of enchantment cost-reducers. I would recommend adding one or two back in. You can switch some of your ramp for cards like Herald of the Pantheon or the new Starfield Mystic .

Next is card draw and tutors. You're not doing too bad at this, but I'm surprised you're not running Satyr Enchanter , Kor Spiritdancer , Sram, Senior Edificer or Open the Armory . Maybe even Three Dreams or Plea for Guidance are playable as well. Also, I think Harmonize deserves a spot because it can get you back in the game without any help.

Another thing you seem pretty weak on is removal. Both targeted and mass. I think Beast Within or Generous Gift or both would pretty easily fix your targeted removal. Maybe even Decimate or Qasali Pridemage . I think you ought to run at least one more board wipe. Single Combat or Divine Reckoning seem prudent. If you wanted to be able to hit more types of permanents, I'd highly recommend Tragic Arrogance .

My final category of things to add are other auras/enchantments and recursion/protection. Bear Umbra has been reprinted and it's still not here and Unquestioned Authority is also good. Also, the new Treefolk Umbra seems good enough to run. Maybe add back in Snake Umbra for card draw. Maybe On Serra's Wings or Asha's Favor for the host of abilities they grant and maybe Boar Umbra . For recursion and protection I'd say Hall of Heliod's Generosity , Umbra Mystic and Boros Charm are all cards that belong in here. Adding back in Retether seems like it would be fine and including either Eternal Witness or Auramancer or both might be good too. In general, I think this deck needs to be rebalanced a little bit.

Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "But my deck is already perfect. What am I supposed to take out?". I'm here to tell you, you're wrong and there are a few cards that seem ripe for removal. First off, Gideon's Intervention seems kinda silly in here. Really not what the deck wants to do. Maybe there are one or two cards that you really don't want to see in a game, but I think having single target removal in place of that would be better. Next off is Combat Celebrant . This guy is kinda slow, really vulnerable, and not an enchantment. If you really want this effect go with Aggravated Assault which, in concert with Bear Umbra, can give you infinite combats. Also, I think it's time for Wall of Reverence to bow out. It can gain you a bunch of life, but I don't think that it's worth the slot. As I mentioned before, the Keyrunes are easy pulls for some card draw spells, enchantment cost-reducers, and maybe another (probably basic) land or two. Maybe one or two other ramp spells (I might consider cutting Burgeoning if you don't add in more card draw) are worth cutting. I think 10-12 is a good number of ramp cards for this deck. Some of the weaker auras I'd look at are Scourge of the Nobilis , Felidar Umbra and maybe Mammoth Umbra and Burning Anger . Maybe I'm wrong about most of or all of those auras. That seems like the most difficult category to cut from.

I hope you've had fun reading all of this and that maybe a couple of my suggestions make a difference.

Azeworai on Samut Voice of Dissent - Cassius | Game Knights #6

2 months ago

No Sylvan Caryatid either.