Sylvan Library

Enchantment

At the beginning of your draw step, you may draw two additional cards. If you do, choose two cards in your hand drawn this turn. For each of those cards, pay 4 life or put the card on top of your library.

Discussion (48)

Romer on The Ceaseless Eldrazi Horde

6 days ago

Ziabo: Thanks man, glad you like it! It's pretty damn fun to play. Morophon could be a decent commander for 5-colour Eldrazi, too, but I really like Golos . Easy to cast without caring about which colours I have, an ETB effect that helps solve my colour problems and an activated ability to cheat amazing, expensive spells into play. Add Morophon to the 99 instead.

Wicker: If money wasn't a concern, I would immediately add a bunch of fetch lands, Expropriate and Sylvan Library .

DivineKhaos: Artifact ramp is really strong and super fast, so it was tempting. I focused on more land-based ramp to help solve my colour needs, since nearly 40% of my spells require coloured mana, including a number that need or . Omg and I'm running Ruinous Ultimatum ?? What was I thinking! I'm also trying to be more resistant to artifact destruction. This deck scares my playgroup so they toss a lot of removal at it and it can feel pretty bad when all your mana rocks get taken out and you're now behind everyone else at the table.

Hustleberry: Lots of good suggestions, thank you! It's just really hard to make cuts to fit in more at this point. That's the biggest difficulty in 5 colour decks, I could run anything and there are hundreds of amazing cards that could work, but I can only fit 99.

• I would play Expropriate if it weren't so damn expensive :)
• Enter the Infinite with Nexus of Fate is definitely strong, it's just hard to make cuts to fit it. At one point I ran Enter the Infinite with Omniscience but after pulling it off a few times, I was over it and took it out.
• No Mercy just isn't enough to stop my playgroup. I've tried it in some decks but my best defense truly is a strong offense with this deck. And board wipes :p
• Agreed, Blue Sun's Zenith is better than Mind Spring and would be a good swap. But since then, I changed over to Finale of Revelation instead.
• You're right, I definitely have non-Eldrazi themed things in here but Platinum Emperion just feels too out of place and I'd feel bad removing one of my big Eldrazi beaters to fit him. If I were to pick one up, I'd put it in one of my artifact-focused decks instead.
• It That Betrays instead of Artisan of Kozilek ? Agreed! Changed... some time ago now. I'm very late in replying to your comments ;)

hkhssweiss: Cloud Key and Semblance Anvil are good, but my card types are so spread out that their effect becomes pretty limited and I do already run things like Urza's Incubator and Herald's Horn , the latter of which which does more than just reduce the cost. Don't think I want to invest too much into just reducing creature costs, when that only accounts for 20% of my deck. Having said that, Cloud Key and Semblance Anvil are fantastic in my artifact decks :D

Ector on Galea, the Equipmonger

1 week ago

The Ramp, the Lands and Topdeck Manipulation

The major goal of every good Galea deck is the right method of ramp and topdeck manipulation. Every time you see a card that Galea cannot play, you should have a way to change the situation somehow. And there are two primary ways to achieve that:

1. Direct manipulation. Scroll Rack , Sylvan Library , Soldevi Excavations , Vantress Gargoyle and Jace, the Mind Sculptor directly manipulate with your topdeck, allowing you to gain card advantage. Let's look at Scroll Rack for example. If you have say three Auras/Enchantments in your hand that you can play this turn, and your topdeck isn't Aura or Equipment. You just draw three cards, put your Auras/Equipments on topdeck and play all them, actually drawing three cards for 1 mana!

2. Fetching lands. As long as Galea cannot play lands from top of your library, you should fetch lands as much as you can. This reduces the number of lands in your library (and the chance to see a land on your topdeck), and allows you to shuffle your library. We have six lands that fetch the other lands, and one of them ( Thawing Glaciers ) can fetch multiple times. We also have Sword of the Animist and Elvish Reclaimer that fetch lands repeatedly, and Expedition Map .

The Ramp strategy of this deck uses "the best of all worlds" principle: the best creatures, the best artifacts and the best Aura ( Wild Growth ). Most of the Ramp cards cost 1 mana, but there are few 0-cost and 2-cost cards. Why don't I use more Auras? Because creatures and artifacts are more efficient, and I need Ramp prior to playing Galea. Why do I use mana dorks? There are two reasons: I need early targets for my Equipment, and I want to sacrifice them later to Skullclamp .

This deck has three ways of fetching NON-basic lands: Elvish Reclaimer , Expedition Map and Tolaria West - and if you have Academy Ruins , you can recycle Expedition Map to fetch more lands. One of the best targets for the fetching is Urza's Saga , which can create a giant token and fetch Skullclamp or Expedition Map . Another very important target is Glacial Chasm , which can allow you to survive and grab victory even in a grave sutuation. Of course, Academy Ruins and Hall of Heliod's Generosity are also the popular fetch targets.

The Aura Selection

Most Auras in this deck steal or spoil enemy creatures (especially Commanders). It's hard to win when your Commander is stolen or converted to Insect :) There are only two Auras that should be played on your creatures: Mantle of the Ancients and Unquestioned Authority . Most of the time they are played via Sovereigns of Lost Alara : you attack, then fetch one of them from your deck, and, in case of the Mantle, also play all Equips from your graveyard.

The Hidden Gems

Conqueror's Flail prohibits opponents from playing spells during your turn. This allows you to play all your stuff without pesky counterspells and attack safely. It's very important for this deck.

Moonsilver Spear and Seraphic Greatsword create 4/4 flying Angels. If you have both, you can create enough blockers that can eventually kill somebody.

Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip should be transformed into a land that provides three mana of any color. It's a great Ramp, especially if you consider that Sword of Feast and Famine and Treachery untap your lands. With a bit of luck, you can even create two Construct tokens with Urza's Saga !

Fractal Harness is the easiest way of creating an enormous creature. It will grow very fast, and Belt of Giant Strength may give it +10/+10! If you get both in play, follow the "Trident Punch" path and look for Surestrike Trident .

Umbral Mantle doesn't have a lot of good targets in this deck: there are no creatures with powerful "Tap:" abilities. But you can steal them! :) Talking seriously, the Mantle is used to untap our Ultron after attacking. I am not a big fan of using Galea for this purpose: it's better not to put all the eggs into one basket. Plus, the Mantle makes a great combo with Surestrike Trident .

Shimmer Dragon is really great for this deck. It flies and almost always has Hexproof. It provides insane amount of cards. And it is much better material for Ultron than Galea IMHO. Most of the time you would need just one Scytheclaw or Kaldra Compleat on it to deal very serious damage.

Fierce Guardianship means that you always might have a counterspell :)

Thassa, God of the Sea is very helpful for two reasons: it can make your creature unblockable (even a tiny Elf with the Scytheclaw becomes a very dangerous threat!) and it provides a free Scry 1 every turn (see above on topdeck manipulation). Still, you have a chance of turning her into creature, since there are several permanents with UU in their casting cost. Having an indestructible creature is always nice!

stellarnear on Evolution Upgrade

2 weeks ago

Leyline of Anticipation > Sylvan Library

stellarnear on Slivo EDH Aggro reland

2 weeks ago

Phyrexian Arena > Sylvan Library

blueiris on Kumena, Just Tap It In

3 weeks ago

Hello, Pheardemons!

Thanks for the comments and feedback. As you can see, I've used a few elements that were inspired from your build, such as the wizards Ertai, Wizard Adept , Venser, Shaper Savant , and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir . I also like the options that the transmute cards bring to maximize potential playability, so great additions with Drift of Phantasms , and the others.

I feel Defense of the Heart can be a really good pace keeper. I find it especially useful combined with Tishana, Voice of Thunder & Jungleborn Pioneer to generate three bodies and draw a minimum of three cards. But, yes, this is also great opportunity to seek out situation based creatures!

Cauldron of Souls is a new addition, so I'll have to follow up. I saw it in another list and liked the idea of preventing a board wipe simply by having a lord in play, but it may end up being too niche for 5 mana and the necessary setup. Also, artifact removal can make quick work of the cauldron , so is it just a sitting target until its potentially used? I'm talking myself out of this one it seems.

I really just want Herald's Horn to work, so it stayed in the list despite any reservations. Is it ramp, is it tribal, is it card draw? I think the sum of all it's parts fit in the list, and only at a cost of . It certainly plays well with Arcane Adaptation & Maskwood Nexus . Sylvan Library also has some synergy to fix the top card with its scry ability, so I guess I'm tooting my horn .

My intentions with Realmwalker are similar to Herald's Horn by allowing top card play/view. Plus, when combined with any of the flash options in the deck it can make things exciting. I think Realmwalker has performed well for me and it's here to stay. Also, an added benefit is that neither card require that you reveal reveal anything to your opponent when peeking.

For removal, I've used Curse of the Swine over the years for flare, but it's ultimately become a staple for me. Sometimes there's only a couple intrusive baddies to remove, and this makes quick work of them. I'll definitely take your advice and use Reality Shift over the non-exile removal, so thanks for pointing that out.

Darting Merfolk pairs with Intruder Alarm to be quite abusive when you have Kumena and a few fish to play with. Tap three fish (even including Darting Merfolk ) to draw a card, pay to return Darting Merfolk to your hand, then recast to untap all fish. Rinse, repeat. I'm not sure there's too much more, but with the appropriate resources it can be pretty powerful.

I've done okay with the colorless lands so far, but it's definitely something I'll need to watch closely. I just added Yavimaya Hollow , so maybe it's a good idea to remove something else colorless in exchange.

I agree with you about Genesis Wave . Honestly, I only avoided the card so I didn't completely plagiarize your deck ;) I'll take your recommendation and add it now! Overall I felt like I could run fewer counter spells and more removal in this package, so this is an excellent inclusion.

Regarding the one drops, I've rethought that comment after your response and it makes sense to stay focused on the combo aspect of this build. Solid advice.

Thanks again, and I appreciate the insight!

enpc on Phyrexian Arena

1 month ago

I didn't realise that Phyrexian Arena got enough hype for it to be over-hyped. Though your comment would indicate that you're moving from a pretty casual form of EDH (where Arena does work becuase games are soe drawn out) into a more competitive more tuned version of EDH.

As others have mentioned, when you get into this space then you're correct that the card does less work, due to either more removal or shorter games. As you start looking for more draw efficiency then you're either looking into cards which are super cheap ( Mystic Remora , Esper Sentinel , Dark Confidant , Sylvan Library , etc) or cards that will get you multiple draws per turn (some of hte aforementioned cards, Runic Armasaur , etc.). The other thing is that due to its double black, it makes the card a lot more clunky to cast in early games, when typically most decks are going for double blue or double green (because let's face it, these two colours dominate the competitive meta).

You also have your cantrips (as other comments have mentioned) - Sign in Blood is decent but Night's Whisper is generally preferred as the casting cost is easier. There's also Painful Truths which needs a 3+ colour deck to work but costs the same amount of mana as Arena with the upside of getting the three cards immediately.

Generally though, the more competitive decks use black primarily for its tutor ability rather than its draw ability (with the obvious exception of Necropotence ).

TriusMalarky on Phyrexian Arena

1 month ago

It's the kind of card that does put in the work, but it's gotta be built around correctly(much like any card draw)

Necro is used sort of as a combo piece but also as a massively effective draw engine.

Arena is used to guarantee you two cards played per rotation, which is great . . . if that's your gameplan. It's also really underwhelming in EDH where it's trivial to assemble ways to draw 2, 3 or even 4 extra cards a rotation.

I'll take a cEDH perspective here. In cEDH, this is unplayable, because

• The only way to turn one it is with Dark Ritual

• You'd rather play Necropotence turn one with Ritual

• You could also play Dark Confidant that can almost always come down turn one and at worst turn two

It also compares badly to every other good card draw spell:

• Mystic Remora comes down turn one and either stalls the other players, giving you the ability to pull ahead, or is basically Ancestral Recall at worst.

• Rhystic Study can come down turn one with Crypt and turn two with basically every other rock. It also draws absurd amounts of cards.

• Wheel of Misfortune or any other wheel allows you to jam a bunch of rocks in play and then reload to 7 on turn 1, meaning you just pull ahead pretty effectively.

• Sylvan Library is just good.

It's good, but not THAT good.

BrassLord on Jolrael's Game Ends in a Draw for the Second Time

2 months ago

Off the top of my head...

Mask of Memory Endless Atlas Staff of Nin Sylvan Library Elder Gargaroth Charge Through Barrier Breach (instant speed cycling) Might be up your alley! Also maybe Tome of Legends