Sylvan Safekeeper

Creature — Human Wizard

Sacrifice a land: Target creature you control gains shroud until end of turn. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)

Discussion (43)

Caerwyn on Fan-created cards printed by WOTC

2 weeks ago

Just doing a quick look at the MTG Wiki:

The mechanic Overload arose out of a mechanic designed by Ken Nagle in the first round of the Great Designer Search 1.

Ethan Fleischer's Evolve Mechanic from the Great Designer Search 2 found its way into the game.

Shawn Main created a mechanic in the Great Designer Search 2 that would be renamed and placed in the game as Battalion )

Looting becoming part of Red's Color Identity has its birth in the Great Designer Search 2.

You Make the Creature contest resulted in the creation of Spiritmonger .

You Make the Card contests resulted in the creation of: Forgotten Ancient , Crucible of Worlds , Vanish into Memory , and Waste Not .

The Winners of the Magic Invitational were allowed to design a card that would feature their likeness. From that, we got:

1. Olle Råde's Sylvan Safekeeper ;
2. Darwin Kastle's Avalanche Riders ;
3. Mike Long's Rootwater Thief ;
4. Chris Pikula's Meddling Mage ;
5. Jon Finkel's Shadowmage Infiltrator ;
6. Kai Budde's Voidmage Prodigy ;
7. Jens Thoren's Solemn Simulacrum ;
8. Bob Maher's Dark Confidant ;
9. Terry Soh's Rakdos Augermage ;
10. Antoine Ruel's Ranger of Eos ; and
11. Tiago Chan's Snapcaster Mage .

The 2005 Magic Invitational had a vote for a fan-submitted card. Tsuyoshi Fujita's winning entry would eventually become Gemstone Caverns .

Magic 2015 had a number of cards created by famous Magic fans. These cards are:

1. George Fan's (Plants vs. Zombies) Genesis Hydra ;
2. Penny Arcade's (of the Penny Arcade webcomic and creator of PAX) Avarice Amulet ;
3. Markus Persson's (creator of Minecraft) Aggressive Mining ;
4. Richard Garriot's (creator of Ultimata) Shield of the Avatar ;
5. David Sirlin's (designer on Street Fighter II) Master of Predicaments ;
6. Rob Pardo's (lead designer for WoW) Xathrid Slyblade ;
7. Isaiah Cartwright's (lead designer for Guild Wars 2) Warden of the Beyond ;
8. Justin Gary's (winner 2003's National Team Championship in Worlds) Spirit Bonds ;
9. Stone Librande's (lead designer Diablo III) Goblin Kaboomist ;
10. Brian Fargo's (Founder of Interplay Entertainment, which made the original Fallout games) Yisan, the Wanderer Bard ;
11. Mike Neumann's (creative director for Borderlands) Chasm Skulker ;
12. James Ernest's (creator of Cheapass Games) Hot Soup ;
13. Edmund McMillen's (indie game designer) Cruel Sadist ; and
14. Brad Muir's (game designer of Double Fine, which made Psychonauts) Ob Nixilis, Unshackled .

I think that should answer your question. There also have been a number of players who were hired directly as a result of their play in tournaments or performances in things like the Great Designer Search, so, in a sense, could be considered fans turned card creators. However, once they become part of the design team, they are no longer merely fan creators, so I am not sure they would be responsive to your question.

BenWin on [[Primer v3.5]] - OM_RATH!!! (M21 Update!!!)

2 months ago

I would like to add a few more thoughts to my previous post.

First I would like to double back and praise Steely Resolve. It may not be able to be tutored, but the protection it provides is unmatched. I always love drawing it, and there is usually no cost to playing it immediately. Worth it 100%, please reinclude.

Mana Vault. Yeah maybe not the best. Discard my thought on it.

Zuran Orb. Definitely troll because I only tend to get rewarded for slotting in World Shaper when I use Greater Good to draw into it (discard lands in the meantime), and cast it to win the game on that turn. No life gain needed in that scenario. As a side note, being able to sac lands for free can be useful to win the game with Titania, Protector of Argoth on the field. Except Sylvan Safekeeper can already for that.

Veil of Summer. This one WOWed me in testing. Unlike any other mechanic in our deck, this can protect an enchantment or tutor spell play. No need for Boseiju, Who Shelters All or whatever, this is the shit you love to draw. Not to mention that it obviously protects Omnath, Locus of Rage. And there's more! If you ever go off drawing cards, like with Greater Good, it's wonderful insurance for helping you complete your combo. In the worst scenario it often cycles itself. Other worst scenario, your opponents aren't playing blue, and you're also really happy?

elk88. Hi! I appreciate your break down of Strip Mine, it highlights the benefits quite well. Intuitively, I agree with you that it just plain makes sense in an EDH lands deck. However, I have found Strip Mine severely underwhelming. Maybe my play tables aren't an accurate representation of the general population of tables or I do not have a good conceptualization of the true potential of Strip Mine in context of our deck. Perhaps it doesn't pertain to my aggressive playstyle and fits better in a grindier one. There are many factors that could affect the usefulness of Strip Mine, but due to my personal experience, playstyle, and bias to my slightly different list, I have to respectfully disagree. At least for now. I hope you continue to have opportunities to test Strip Mine in your own list and I'd be interested to hear more about how it goes.

BenWin on [[Primer v3.5]] - OM_RATH!!! (M21 Update!!!)

2 months ago

Hi Guerte and _Arra_. Great discussion.

Skullclamp. Lets work through this more. The whole point of our deck is to maximize turns Omnath, Locus of Rage is in play and the landfall triggers we give him to make elementals. Saying those are requirements for Skullclamp are silly because we're doing that regardless of what we draw every game. The question is how much of the time will we be drawing a sac outlet to fuel Skullclamp? Well actually sac outlets are a huge component of our win-con because we often rely on our elementals dying to win. Key word dying. Doesn't matter whether it's to a sac outlet, board wipe like Blasphemous Act, combat, or removing our general. You can put Skullclamp on an elemental to dissuade attackers or blockers, or on Omnath, Locus of Rage to dissuade removal. And that's without a sac outlet. Realistically, with or without Skullclamp, if you aren't drawing into a sac outlet on average, you aren't running enough outlets! And after 1 proc you've already exceeded the cost of the single card that it is. The rest is bonus, and a steep potential for bonus that is, not to mention minimal CMC investment. And if more card draw is what you're looking for to justify cards like Gamble, then this card is even better than what it is alone. I also like Life's Legacy and Kavu Lair. I think draw is a really competitive component of any deck. If we're even asking ourselves if the deck has enough draw to support cards like Gamble, why not add more and start criticizing the cards we draw more than the draw engines themselves?

Perilous Forays. I value this card at its CMC because it's aggressive. Burn as an archetype is inherently aggressive, wouldn't you agree? If you draw it early then you have basics to burn for damage. If you draw it late with few basics left to tutor, then that means you've probably had quite a successful game already - aka you should be happy you've gotten this far! Look at Perilous Forays like insurance to the late game. And we all know what happens in late game - looking for hits like Greater Good to look for win-cons like Warstorm Surge. We love to see it!

Mana Vault. Another card you love to see early. Different from the previous example, you gain mana the first time you play Mana Vault, so I'm not sure why you'd be disappointed? Maybe it's that you wished you drew a different card because OM_RATH doesn't have the best card draw? I haven't tested as much, but similar mentality for me.

Zuran Orb. This one is a little bit of a meme, but I've been toying with the idea and I'd like to throw it out and see what happens. If you draw Zuran Orb and a sac outlet, similar to our Skullclamp example, you can tutor up World Shaper and sac all your lands in response to World Shaper trigger for a nutty turn. It's jank, but really think about it!!! :D

Strip Mine. Compare this to the Skullclamp example where for Skullclamp to truly activate you need a sac outlet. One difference in this juxtaposition is that now you need two things: extra land drops and graveyard recursion. Now assume we get them. Using Strip Mine is very different tempo wise in multiplayer commander than it would be in a 1v1 format. Say it's a 4 person CMD game. To get a tempo ahead you'd either have to play 1 land or destroy 3, one of each opponent's on average. I get that Strip Mine can destroy key lands like Cavern of Souls, but are we a policing deck or a deck that wants to play 1000 elementals and say try policing this? Ever since we cut Tempt with Discovery I think Strip Mine got a lot weaker for us. Temple of the False God was a thought, but I agree with you it's not great. Do you have any better ideas, even if it's adding a basic mountain back?

Sylvan Safekeeper. The difference between Sylvan Safekeeper and Strip Mine is that our opponents' removal spells will be more limited their lands. Trading one of our lands for a removal spell will be more valuable than trading land for land. I'm not saying that we should carelessly play Sylvan Safekeeper and sac all our lands, but we can tutor when we have a good foundation and we'll be fine.

Steely Resolve. It is a great card, better than Sylvan Safekeeper when it is in play, but it can't be tutored. What if we had a card that draws us cards in its place? That way we are drawing into more ways to ramp to keep up land production. This would be helpful if we'd like to rely more on Sylvan Safekeeper for protection which is more practical. Practical meaning that we have 3 tutors and a Sylvan Safekeeper meaning that we have up to 4 copies if we want. And this way we won't have to worry about drawing both Steely Resolve and Sylvan Safekeeper in the same game which is redundant. To be clear I respect the power of Steely Resolve, I'm just proposing a way we can justify filling its slot.

_Arra_ on [[Primer v3.5]] - OM_RATH!!! (M21 Update!!!)

2 months ago

Hi BenWin, a bit of a long reply, apologies if I ramble. Guerte has hit the nail on the head with Burgeoning, not only do we need lands in hand we also need our opponents to be playing lands and for a large number of decks our opponents are playing typically run very few lands so that it is almost never provides value outside of the opening hand and even in the opening hand you need to make sure you have a card draw spell to refill or else you are instantly in top deck mode turn 1 or 2, not great.

Skullclamp I understand your point here, it is a highly efficient card and it might well be worth running. It is likely to be removed on sight but maybe better this than one of our enchantments etc. Maybe worth testing but I am still leaning towards this not really fitting in with our game plan. It is another piece to have onboard for it to be of value. What I mean by this is that we need a creature preferrably a elemental token so we would need Omnath, Locus of Rage + Skullclamp + a sac outlet + a land in hand or a landfall trigger. It isn't Greater Good or Valakut Exploration which generate a value with fewer pieces required.

Force of Vigor I am a champion of, we agree, this should be an auto include in almost all green decks. The Omrath iteraltion of this deck runs very little spot removal which meta dependent is not the best approach, however, what it lacks in interaction it gains in efficiency, synergy and power. Run Force of Vigor folks.

Gamble This is an interesting one and one I am surprised to say I haven't tested thoroughly. Let me explain why. The card as powerful as it is and a tutor that Gruul in great need of also suffers significantly when we have very few cards in hand which for the most part Omrath does. If we can consistently have a full grip then I think this card is an auto include but I am sure we can all agree that Omnath very rarely is in that position and if we are then we are likely already winning, ie, we have just played a big Shamanic Revelation or Rishkar's Expertise or have Greater Good in play with a decent number of elementals. I don't think I will be running Gamble until we consistently have more cards in hand.

Altar of Dementia I think it is fair to aliken it too much to Ashnod's Altar as although they are both colourless enchantments Ashnod's Altar also produces mana. It turns each Field of the Dead trigger into a painless Ancient Tomb which is great for recasting Omnath, Locus of Rage or setting up for one of our high cmc spells. Your point about self mill is interesting and does generate another potential line for use albeit risky as we run very little non land recursion. with only Eternal Witness and Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip available ever since we cut Greenwarden of Murasa. Milling our opponents out late could be a option but we'd need at least one of our doubling effects to have enough power onboard to eat through that many cards. I won't be running this card.

Sensei's Divining Top also won't be making the cut. Like I mentioned in my previous post I just think I would rather have other cards. If you are playing a slower plan with more interaction and maybe a bunch of stax pieces I can see this potentially being valuable. I just don't think Omrath is a deck for utility artifacts, we're too busy trying to play lands and cards that actively close the game rather than durdle.

Perilous Forays I cannot get behind. As mentioned previously it is a high cmc sac outlet and more importantly by the time I find myself playing I have very few basics left or at least not enough to be meaningful damage.Blasphemous Act is almost always a very cheap board wipe and I for one would not consider switching these, but whatever works for your meta.

Sylvan Scrying is very meta and budget dependent, you are correct that if you need to get a Cavern of Souls, Boseiju, Who Shelters All or Gaea's Cradle then this card is great, however, it would be greater if it put the card into play like Crop Rotation. Play if it makes sense, I would also advocate this over Rampant Growth as although Rampant Growth puts a land into play, it comes in tapped and is a basic. I don't think Rampant Growth should be in any serious Omrath deck especially not Three Visits is affordable, if it still is, switch it for Sylvan Scrying.

Temple of the False God I think is a budget card and something I removed from the deck years ago. If it is the opening hand it is generally fairly bad. We cannot fetch for it, this is pretty significant as we only run a few utility lands and non of these have particular downsides/restrictions. I would suggest thinking it this way, in which situation would you use Crop Rotation to get this card? I don't think I would every choose this over one of our arguably higher powered utility lands. Just not for me. If you are on a budget and can't get an Ancient Tomb, Gaea's Cradle, Cavern of Souls etc then go for it. We only run 8 utility lands all of which are more powerful effects. Regarding Strip Mine, have you ever had multi landfalls + Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine? this is only anti tempo for our opponent's. Also being able to remove some elses Gaea's Cradle or table a multi coloured deck off a colour early game is exactly why Strip Mine is powerful. I would take another look at how and when you are using it. Yes there are games when it does nothing but some times you need to get rid of a pesky Cavern of Souls so the blue player can counter etc.

Mana Vault so far I have been disappointed. This is another, if it isn't in your opening hand it gets a lot weaker. I will persist a little longer but I might switch this out to test Jeweled Lotus.

Steely Resolve in my opinion should not be cut. I am very much against this as games I have played this card I have almost always won. If it eats a remove spell then that is one less that will be targeting Omnath, Locus of Rage or Ancient Greenwarden. Sylvan Safekeeper is great but if you have issue with anti tempo as you mentioned with Strip Mine then you surely don't like Sylvan Safekeeper?

Just my humble take on those cards. If you want to run them do, have fun with the deck, test things out and see how they feel for you.

BenWin on [[Primer v3.5]] - OM_RATH!!! (M21 Update!!!)

2 months ago

Hi Omrathians.

Thank you _Arra_ and VexenX for the detailed replies, and anyone else I might be forgetting. You guys never let me down! I would like to quickly mention that I agree with both of your takes on infinite combos, and I too am not aiming to build that type of deck here.

What I may have been poorly communicating in previous posts is that if our current primary win-con of OM_RATH is burn, I think we could benefit from lowering CMC. My understanding is that burn works best when we're pressuring opponents as quickly as possible, which means sometimes less CMC can be more effective!

I'd like to continue the discussion on a few cards, and bring up some new ones too:

Burgeoning - To generalize the comments I've seen about this card, it seems to shine in the right opening hand, but lose it's consistency quickly. Could we agree that if OM_RATH had more consistent draw, especially early-mid, then Burgeoning could be a reconsideration?

Skullclamp - The cheap draw this offers is absolutely nuts. Pay 1 for 2 cards before sacing to an outlet. But we can increase the value of drawing cards by lowering average CMC. Like setting up a well greased engine. Maybe it's just me but I think setting up an engine for burn seems like a great idea. Same idea with Life's Legacy and even Kavu Lair.

Force of Vigor - I still think it's silly to not include this. The extra slot it takes up doesn't sting as bad if you add more draw.

Gamble - Early game you could search something like Oracle of Mul Daya and mid-late you could get a Greater Good. It even serves as a creature tutor for Sylvan Safekeeper. It also gets better as we add more draw and consistency. Isn't this nuts?

Altar of Dementia - Maybe a good hotfix over Ashnod's Altar for 1 less CMC. You could even imagine milling yourself if you want to take a creature tutor route into World Shaper + sac outlet.

Sensei's Divining Top - Great for any opening hand that lacks a 2 or 3 CMC ramp spell, increasing early game consistency. I don't think it slows us down because it allows us to curve out better each turn given a less than ideal hand. Different from other decks, we often have a land to spare because of the ramp, and what a good way to grease an engine!

Perilous Forays - If I'm getting this right, people are complaining about the high CMC. You're not wrong that some CMC cuts could help. In fact, more cuts to CMC improves Perilous Forays because you can afford to dump more mana into it on average. Unlike other outlets, Perilous Forays helps you police other opponents without limiting you to number of creatures owned. In that way it is a very aggressive outlet if left unchecked, and is undeniably just burn. Maybe you won't be able to kill the whole table since you're limited to basics, but it should put at least one player of your choice on a quick clock. Isn't that still everything you want out of a card?

Sylvan Scrying - I still think this one is a must have because it can get you Cavern of Souls, which depending on your table could be game-saving in itself. Of course there are many other routes you can take.

Temple of the False God - Seems like another way to accelerate past our opponents. TBH I've been unimpressed with Strip Mine because it's anti-tempo and I think this may be a better fit. Shoutout to _Arra_ for reminding me about Strip Mine.

Mana Vault - Thank you Guerte for mentioning this. Seems great for a quicker deck concept.

Steely Resolve - I agree we can cut this. In a way, we kind of had 5 Steely Resolves in the deck if you count our 3 creature tutors and Sylvan Safekeeper. Cutting it allows more flexibility, like ramping in it's place.

Interested to hear people's thoughts! I love to hear devil's advocates, so please sir, maybe I have another!

RivenEsq on Selvala, Heart of the Storm

3 months ago

Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip -> Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Ravaging Riftwurm -> Hunted Troll

Skullwinder -> Karametra's Acolyte

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard -> Ashaya, Soul of the Wild

Deglamer -> Allosaurus Shepherd

Groundswell -> Regal Force

Might of Old Krosa -> Sylvan Safekeeper

Cloudstone Curio -> Collector Ouphe

Memory Jar -> Return of the Wildspeaker

Paradox Engine -> Shared Summons

Song of the Dryads -> Veil of Summer

Phytoburst -> Finale of Devastation

Primal Command -> Kogla, the Titan Ape

Uncage the Menagerie -> Mox Diamond

Mouth of Ronom -> Kenrith's Transformation

Somberwald Stag -> Jeweled Lotus

Lupine Prototype -> Hyrax Tower Scout

Fierce Empath -> Manglehorn

Weird Harvest -> Elvish Spirit Guide

Reclamation Sage -> Relic Golem

Dryad Arbor -> War Room

Forest -> Turntimber Symbiosis  ^Flip

Forest -> Ancient Tomb

Forest -> Emergence Zone

Forest -> Homeward Path

Forest -> Castle Garenbrig

bantrules12 on Kinnan, Combo Prodigy

3 months ago

I feel like Metallic Mimic needs to come out there are so many better options like Prophet of Distortion I would also replace Sylvan Safekeeper with Force of Negation just personal choice on my end I dont know the meta you play in

RNR_Gaming on Here, have a mountain

3 months ago

Theres an article on edhrec about him. It was running this janky combo Amulet of Vigor + Mirrorpool + Splendid Reclamation + Sunscorched Desert with a land sac outlets Zuran Orb and Sylvan Safekeeper - lots of moving parts but fairly easy to assemble with Scapeshift and a little luck.