Talisman of Conviction

Artifact

{T}: Add {C}.

{T}: Add {R} or {W}. This deals 1 damage to you.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

StopShot on Two rules change suggestions to …

6 months ago

[My EDH Background]

I used to be an avid EDH player until my old playgroup dissolved. It was only until recently that I built an EDH deck after more than half a decade and felt lost after two recent commander nights. I had dropped off after Hour of Devestation only to find the present-day meta feels like a completely different format than the one I had enjoyed. Seeing the prEDH format caught my attention but given I had gotten into EDH around Fate Reforged, the prEDH card restrictions seemed to dial things too far back for me, and I feel like a lot of players who got into EDH around the same time period as myself might feel the same way. As such, this format may feel just as alien to a good portion of left out players today, but I'd like to discuss if maybe that aspect could be improved upon.

[The New Phyrexia cut-off should not be extended]

I'd like to make two suggestions to adjust the scope of this format. One suggestion I will not ask though, is that the set cutoff point be extended past New Phyrexia. I agree with the rationale for excluding all of MTG that took place during and after the first commander preconstructed products were released. This is in place to make the format 100% organic and extending the cut-off to any other set would be highly arbitrary and subject to much disagreement.

[Issue #1 - OG Duals and Patchy Manabases]

But there are some issues that should be addressed and remedied regarding this format. One being at the time of New Phyrexia's release the monetary cost of OG dual lands were significantly cheaper then than as they are now. Given the best manabases for prEDH would use OG Duals, Fetchlands, and Shocklands, not having easy access to one (or more) of them puts non-legacy players in the rough spot of relying on prEDH's limited and patchy color-fixing options which can leave new decks performing at a more clunky pace than they otherwise would be if built back in New Phyrexia. Now I'm not against players using proxies but I think a format does a lot better at attracting a wider audience if they're not inclined to feel like they have to proxy reserve list cards to fully enjoy the format as intended.

[Rules Change Suggestion to Address Issue #1]

I believe that if there is a land or mana-rock cycle that started before New Phyrexia, but was completed sometime after New Phyrexia, then all cards of that cycle should be made legal in prEDH just so that all color identities have equal access to their colors, because prEDH has a surprising number of incomplete mana cycles. This change would make the following cards and their colorshifted counterparts legal in prEDH despite being printed after New Phyrexia: (Clifftop Retreat), (Inspiring Vantage), (Needle Spires), (Nomad Outpost), (Snow-Covered Wastes), (Stone Quarry), (Sunbaked Canyon), (Sunscorched Divide), (Talisman of Conviction), (Wastes), and (Wind-Scarred Crag). This rule would also still apply to any new cards that would complete any of the cycles that have yet to be completed as well such as if Wizards were to ever complete the cycles for (Crosis's Catacombs), (Grove of the Burnwillows), (Nimbus Maze), (Wildfield Borderpost), etc.

[Issue #2 - Lack of Color Identity Options]

One aspect that made EDH novel is its color restriction on deck-building. From its inception, you would pick any of 5 Elder Dragons to be your Highlander and you would be barred from utilizing whatever 2 colors were not part of that dragon's identity. As the game grew into commander you could pick any legendary creature to be your commander instead and the color restriction carried over to your commander's color identity. The issue is prEDH's list of legal commanders provides a very limited line-up of commanders for any multicolored identity. Some color identities only have 1 commander legal for that color identity, and a vast majority of legal commanders are mono-colored which imposes a much heavier restriction than EDH had first set out to be with its 3-color dragons. This can lead to an over-saturation of players picking the same commander from the limited multicolor roster and more players picking up 5-color commanders, because their favorite color combination is restricted to just Numot, the Devastator, or Oros, the Avenger, or Vorosh, the Hunter. This isn't to say there won't be players playing mono-colored or everyone will be playing Reaper King because their favorite color-combination is underrepresented, but that prEDH restricts cards not just by set, but also much more heavily with color as well which can result in a poorer deck diversity than modern day EDH; (an issue that was not present when Commander was a much smaller and niche format). It's to this end I feel color restrictions could be opened up a bit to counteract the set restriction as a trade-off and that by doing so with the EDH philosophy in mind won't warp or distort the power level or vibe of prEDH.

[Rules Change Suggestion to Address Issue #2]

In order to open up the commander color restriction, prEDH decks would have a land in the command zone in addition to the commander with this land serving as the "Commander's Domain." The color identity or basic land type of the Commander's Domain would set the color restriction on what cards can be included in the deck including the commander instead of it being the commander's color identity that restricts card inclusion. The lands that can be chosen to be your Commander's Domain consist only of: any of the 10 trilands such as Seaside Citadel, any of the 10 match-lands such as Glacial Fortress, or any basic land such as Plains or Wastes. The Commander's Domain would not be subject to the command tax and can be played as your land for turn by either exiling a basic land card from your hand or by exiling a basic land you own on the battlefield. One exception to this rule will be made for all 5-color legendary commanders. 5-color legendary creatures may be used as your commander regardless of your Commander's Domain and if your commander is 5-color you may run any basic land in your deck regardless of your Commander's Domain. Your Commander's Domain will still restrict what spells and non-basic lands you can include in your deck, however. This proposal seeks to expand deck diversity and creativity while still abiding to the original EDH tenant of limiting what colors may be included in your deck as well as provide an additional means of color fixing due to the greater lack of lands that are both decent and affordable in this format.

[Concluding Thoughts - The goal is not to make prEDH more like modern EDH]

The sake of these proposals isn't to make something new and flashy for the sake of making something new and flashy, but to make prEDH feel more like everyone's first EDH experience including for those who got into the format well after New Phyrexia but well before the current meta. That is not to say "make prEDH more like EDH" as that is the furthest thing from this thread's intention. This is more of a belief that a lot more can be gained while sacrificing very little and that much could benefit current prEDH players who would like to see more people play their format. It's possible my proposals may have missed this mark, but I would like to start a discussion on whether there are current shortcomings in this format and if it would be worth it to make changes to mitigate them or not to better the health and/or standing of this format.

_AoxomoxoA_ on Veni, Vidi, Vici

7 months ago

10/24/24 Revisions

Why?

A bit of a fast follow-up here, I know. While I liked where the deck was at, I couldn't help but notice that it was still far too slow. Sure, when you get to turn 7 or so, the deck was able to start pumping out, but those first turns were grueling. Essentially having 0 ways to cheat for extra mana put me far behind any deck that is even slightly competitive. So, this change was hard to make, but definitely feeds the machine of progress through the entirety of the game. Reducing the CMC of the deck with the removal of certain high-cost low value cards will ensure a better early game while not damaging the late game potential too much. One of my favorite parts of this deck is how resistant it is to being board wiped, and I think this has improved that, instead of spending an entire turn to play a 6-cost card like Elspeth, only for her to be killed the next turn I can spend my turns playing more combo pieces and not have a large cost card that's dead in hand.

Removed

Captain of the Watch: 6 Mana to create 3 tokens, plus vigilance and +1/+1. Personally I think the card is pretty good, but in White it's very slow for a mid payout. In this deck +1/+1 and Vigilance isn't nearly the game changer it would be if it were in a deck that only cares about swinging

Colonel Autumn: While his Exploit ability is pretty good, especially with the amount of legendaries in this deck, it's still not good enough and it's another case of the actual damage done during my attack phase doesn't matter nearly as much as the triggers I get off the phase

Talisman of Conviction: Replaced by Moxes, I like the Talismans but too slow compared to the 0-cost moxes

Talisman of Hierarchy: Replaced by Moxes, I like the Talismans but too slow compared to the 0-cost moxes

Talisman of Indulgence: Replaced by Moxes, I like the Talismans but too slow compared to the 0-cost moxes

Evolving Wilds: Not terrible, but there's better options. Takes 1 turn to be usable.

Myriad Landscape: You get to waste 2 turns AND spend 3 mana to get 2 tapped lands. Not ideal.

Intangible Virtue: Similar to Autumn and Captain of the Watch, at this point I care much less about the damage dealt by the tokens and more about their usability in triggers

Elspeth, Sun's Champion: 6 mana chonker for either 3 tokens, or 1/2 of an Austere Command. If she lives it's great, but she's a pretty big target for elimination. I like her, but once again, too slow and too risky to dump 6 mana into

Keeper of the Accord: I have 4 basic plains in the deck, and I almost never have less creatures than everyone else. If this card needs to come out, I have probably already lost the game and am far behind.

MacCready, Lamplight Mayor: This kind of hurts to remove. MacCready is super interesting in the deck and gets a good amount of damage to sneak through, but at the late game, most of my tokens are too big for his ability to use.

Added

Commander Mustard: He provides WAYYY more value than Captain of the Watch in the form of trample and haste, as well as he costs 1 less than it, is a human soldier and his 2nd ability is very synergystic with the rest of the deck, even for 4 mana. Basically he provides two triggers of impact tremors when I swing out, giving my tokens more value

Priest of Forgotten Gods: This card is actually kind of busted. Forcing enemies to sacrifice creatures gets around indestructable, or big boys, pings their face for 2 damage, free mana, and card draw. All of this for a two cost card and sacrificing 2 creatures. Actually kind of insane to have all of these effects for 2 1/1 tokens.

Jeska's Will: Free mana is exactly what I was looking for. Against a deck that uses thought vessel, or reliquary tower, ad nauseum, ect... just any deck that draws cards easily (90% of decks especially with the One Ring still unbanned), this will work wonders for my X-cost cards, or just getting some of the bigger boys out.

Chrome Mox: Better Talisman IMO

Mox Amber: Almost all of my creatures are legendary, free money. Arcane Signet for 0 mana

Mox Diamond: 0 mana for any color I need every turn

Phyrexian Altar: Essentially just Ashnod's altar

Afterlife Insurance: Amazing protection against boardwipes, or punishing people for blocking me. 2 mana to recover all my tokens

Phyrexian Tower: Exactly what I was looking for, a way to generate more mana than just 1 colored.

Urza's Saga: No brainer, free colorless for 2 turns, then I get a Sol Ring, Mox, Mana Vault. Whatever fits my needs

Prosperous Partnership: 3 mana to generate 2 creature tokens and treasure tokens when I'm not ready to swing with my entire board. Also works well with vigilance!

Crow_Umbra on Allies Bring the Energy

10 months ago

As a new player, I loved the flavor of an adventuring party helping each other out. Lol nice! That's definitely the type of combos my play group used run back them. Ooo nice, best of luck figuring out the swap for Warleader's Call.

I saw your comment on the main feed regarding your mana base. I think generally speaking, your color fixing is good, especially since quite a few of your spells have a heavy single-color investment, or are multi-colored. Speed on mana is great once you can get it, but I think color fixing is the next best thing to focus on.

If you wanted to focus on manabase upgrades first, you're spot on with swapping out some tapped lands, and swapping with options like Clifftop Retreat or Spectator Seating, depending on your budget. A couple more two mana rocks like Talisman of Conviction or Izzet Signet could help too.

I like what you've got going on with your utility lands and the Proliferation tech.

Crow_Umbra on

10 months ago

You've got a pretty solid Isshin deck! Have you had a chance to play this list irl yet? I have a few suggestions, and just kind of "food for thought" comments from looking at your deck:

• I'll admit, I'm a bit biased, and prefer not to use equipment that aren't Lightning Greaves variants or Skullclamp. On that note, I'd recommend maybe swapping out Diamond Pick-Axe & Sword of the Animist/Bitterthorn with a couple more 2 mana rocks like Talisman of Conviction & others in-color. Pacing wise, I found Sword of the Animist to be kinda slow for Isshin, since it's 4 total mana to cast & equip to a creature. The 2 mana rocks could even swap out with Wayfarer's Bauble and/or Commander's Sphere.

• Related, but Skullclamp is gas for draw in a deck like this that makes lots of 1/1 tokens. Highly recommend it.

• Phlage is a great card, but do you think you'd ever cast it for its Escape cost? I pulled a copy, but haven't put it in Isshin yet, mostly because in games where I could play the Escape cost, I'm already far enough behind that it might not help me much.

• Rottenmouth Viper is an enticing pick that I've definitely gone back and forth on, but have mostly left in consideration for now. It kinda feels like a slower Torment of Hailfire with extra steps, & needs some steep board investment if you cast it for its reduced cost.

• If you keep a lot of your big beaters, Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest could be worth looking at. On its own, it's at least a 5/5 flyer that can smack faces, but has that additional impulse draw & group slug stapled to it.

• I'd highly recommend adding Clever Concealment, Scapegoat, or Fanatical Devotion as additional means of protecting your board, or at least key pieces of it. Isshin is heavily board invested, so protection goes a long way.

Those are just some of my initial thoughts. I'm down to talk shop if you're up for it. Best of luck with your deck; Isshin is a blast

Gbickel on Aurelia, the Warleader

1 year ago

Auerlia is one of my favorite commanders. So glad that you are building her. Boros has historically been terrible with ramp and draw, but there's a lot of things you can to now to shore up those problems in these colors.

I'm not sure your budget, but here are some of my recommendation. Ramp: Fellwar Stone, Oketra's Monument, Pearl Medallion or Ruby Medallion, Talisman of Conviction, Land Tax, $Smothering Tithe, and Curse of Opulence. Curse of Opulence is such a fun card to get gold token and insentivize your opponents to attack someone else.

Draw: Aurelia, the Law Above, Geier Reach Sanitarium, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Mask of Memory, Faithless Looting. I love running Palantir of Orthanc. Its fun messing with opponents to get the draw or hitting them for lots of damage. I enjoy running wheel cards, but the Aurelia I play is a reanimator deck. So I have no problems with my creatures in the graveyard.

But a big weakness I see is spot removal. You do have boardwipes. They are okay, but sometimes you need to remove one problem permanent instead of resetting the board. I would encourage adding removal for different types of permanents. This is something that Boros excels in.

Monomanamaniac on Here we go A-Ghen (Arcanum Weaver)

1 year ago

So I'm not absolutely sure what you were looking for, or what your budget is, so I just grabbed as many decently affordable cards that I could find and brought them for you to check out. I mostly picked out things that might help you close the game with life loss or give you value from in looping. It's too bad Thousand-Year Elixir isn't more affordable Agent of Erebos Ajani's Chosen Archon of Sun's Grace Ashiok's Reaper Boros Garrison Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher Caves of Koilos Cemetery Tampering Clifftop Retreat Curse of Opulence Darksteel Mutation Debtors' Knell Doomwake Giant Dragonskull Summit Exotic Orchard Fellwar Stone Grim Guardian Hopeless Nightmare Isolated Chapel Mesa Enchantress Myriad Landscape Open the Vaults Orzhov Basilica Rakdos Carnarium Resurgent Belief Ruinous Ultimatum Smoldering Marsh Spirited Companion Starfield Mystic Talisman of Conviction Talisman of Hierarchy Talisman of Indulgence Underworld Coinsmith Wicked Visitor

EquivocalVision on Barren Glory RWB - EDH

1 year ago

First of all, this deck looks super fun! I love a good Mardu strategy!

How has your mana curve been treating you? I run the original duals and every possible best dual land, but even after that I recently increased my mana rocks to include the talismans just to ensure I can mana fix earlier.

Have you considered including: Talisman of Conviction Talisman of Hierarchy Talisman of Indulgence

If there isn't room in the deck, that's totally legit. I get it. I've got a lot going on in mine as well. Just thought I'd leave the suggestion, but otherwise good job man! This deck again looks really fun to play!

Crow_Umbra on Battle Buddies

1 year ago

Hi there, I saw your comment on the feed and thought I'd offer some suggestions on potential cuts. Some thoughts from looking over your deck:

• First off, I think it's great that you have something like Insurrection as a top end finisher. Having played against some goad decks in my play groups ( mostly Kardur, Doomscourge), they can have trouble closing out games.

• Your 4 drop slot seems pretty crowded and I think where you could focus some of your cuts. I think some of the cuts can eventually get turned into a couple more 2cmc rocks to help you ramp. If anything, you could probably swap 2-3 of your land slots for a couple more rocks like Talisman of Conviction, Boros Signet, Mind Stone, and maybe Cursed Mirror to copy a valuable creature.

• Speaking of lands, I think if you stay heavy on the Enchantments, it'd be worth it to run Hall of Heliod's Generosity and maybe a few other utility lands like War Room, Minas Tirith, Scavenger Grounds, and Volatile Fault. Land destruction beyond Generous Gift/Beast Within isn't super common in most play groups. You could probably swap a few of your basics for some of these.

• Goblin Diplomats might be more trouble than its worth, since your opponents can still attack you. This could maybe get swapped with Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

• I think Fumiko can be a potential cut, mostly because she forces your opponents to attack, but not necessarily to attack each other like Goad might.

• Firemane Commando as a removal option seems kinda clunky. You could maybe swap her for something like Soul Partition, which can be a protective effect or removal.

• Mangara might be a potential cut, but I think this is more of a meta dependent call. I played him in a really early iteration of my Isshin deck, and oftentimes my opponents would remove him or play around his abilities by sending their 1 biggest and/or most evasive creature at me.

• You can maybe swap Agitator Ant with Nils, Discipline Enforcer, since you have control over the counter distribution, and he also punishes the utilization of any counters on your opponents' creatures.

• Assemble the Legion could be a potential cut, as it seems kinda slow for the payoff.

If you're interested, I theory-crafted a Nelly Borca deck that is trying to do what you want to do with this deck. I doubt I'll ever put it together, but it could be helpful to compare notes with. We definitely have some core similarities, but I think I lean a bit more into aggro elements for the deck to fall back to as a finisher, or if the Goad options aren't online. Check out The Slander Commander if you'd like.