Talisman of Hierarchy

Artifact

{T}: Add {C}.

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

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Freeform	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 (49)

Crow_Umbra on Round 3 FIGHT

4 days ago

Hi there, and welcome to the Isshin club. I think that what you have here looks like a Bracket 2-3, so I think you're generally within your intended goal.

I have a few suggestions and general food for thought. I've been playing Isshin since his debut. He's a blast, but there are a few things to consider:

• As you get more reps in with the deck I would recommend really leaning into whichever avenue you enjoy most and cutting back on the others. I see you have some stuff for going wide & also stuff for solo attacking/equipment.

• When I first built Isshin, I played him as a "salad" of all kinds of attack triggers, but it overall felt unfocused/watered down. Over time I leaned in heavily into tokens/going wide/group slug. Figuring out your avenue can help focus future edits & remove whatever doesn't fit that. If you prefer tokens & going wide you can cut back on the Equipments & solo attacking stuff or vice versa.

• I'd recommend re-evaluating your spells in the 5+ cmc slots, especially since you're light on early game ramp beyond Sol Ring. I'd recommend adding a couple of 2 mana rocks like Arcane Signet, Talisman of Hierarchy and others in Mardu colors.

• Isshin thrives on having a lower mana curve for a couple of reasons: Faster starts for quicker aggro pressure, & easier rebuilds after board wipes & removal.

All in all those are the most general suggestions I can give. I dont really do specific swaps suggestions unless you would like some. Best of luck with the deck & happy to chat more if you'd like.

NV_1980 on Krav partner token/lifegain

2 months ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the general idea of this deck is to generate tokens and benefit from that by gaining (or draining) life and by saccing some of them through Krav so you can draw cards. So anything that's not helping towards that, can prolly be axed. In my opinion, this would be cards like:

• Abstruse Appropriation: stealing creatures is fun, but this spell really makes it rather expensive. First you pay 4 to remove something and then the removed creature's mana cost to steal it. If you keep it for removal purposes, it's much better to replace with something that's cheaper to cast, like Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares.
• Command the Dreadhorde: I get why you'd include this, considering the deck's theme, but there are better ways to steal opposing creatures. If you're THAT horny for what's in opposing graveyards, use Grave Betrayal; at least it won't cost you any life and it's an enchantment so it can be used until someone manages to zap it.
• Debt to the Deathless: you don't need this. The deck already contains plenty of ways to deprive the opposition of their lifepoints AND plenty of ways for you to gain life. This just seems expensive to me.
• Elbrus, the Binding Blade  ^Flip: honestly, wtf is this doing in here? Not saying this isn't a fun card, but considering its costs and the fact that your deck doesn't do anything with making your creatures unblockable, this seems a waste of a slot to me.
• Emeria's Call  ^Flip: have some doubts about this one. I get it, but are Angel tokens so important that you're willing to spend 7 mana on a spell that saves your tokens from destruction? There are cheaper ways to do this (but then you don't get Angels), like Make a Stand, Rootborn Defenses or Unbreakable Formation.
• Glasswing Grace  ^Flip: it's a nice boost for a single creature, but it doesn't add to the deck's theme.
• Increasing Devotion: not bad but it's also relatively expensive to cast for what you get in return. Matter of taste I suppose; personally I'd leave it out (the deck has plenty of (cheaper) token-generation already).
• Polluted Bonds: strong drain, but not of a kind that's in-theme with the rest of the deck.
• The Regalia: it's an ok ramping mechanism. I'd replace it with a cheaper-to-cast mana rock though, which saves you some time. Jet Medallion, Orzhov Signet, Pearl Medallion, Talisman of Hierarchy ... whichever works.

So aside from all the above, you can cut four lands (or replace them with cheap-to-cast mana rocks to increase resource availability). Good luck.

Crow_Umbra on The Glory of the Horde (Zurgo Ultra-Budget)

3 months ago

All of the suggestions here are pretty spot on. I've had an Isshin tokens deck in my lineup since 2022, and experienced similar deck-building conundrums in its earliest days. I have a few general suggestions, as well as a couple for more specific cut considerations:

• For decks like these, it's ideal to keep the average Mana value on the lower end. This helps set up quicker starts and makes it a bit easier to rebuild your board after eating some removal. I'd generally recommend looking at your 5-8 MV range as the first place to focus for cuts, as others suggested through more specific cuts.

• I think you can cut Crowded Crypt as something on the cheaper end. To build off my last bullet, cards at the 3 MV slot should be impactful enough to warrant them competing to be cast on curve instead of your commander. This will come from getting more reps with a deck. I make this suggestion for a few reasons: Crowded Crypt is a bit slow at 3 MV, it taps for 1 color of mana in a tri-color deck, & its activated ability is okay. I'd recommend swapping in another 2 MV rock like Talisman of Hierarchy or one of the others in Mardu Colors, or Rakdos Signet and others in Mardu colors.

• Since Zurgo cares about your token creatures dying, here are a few sacrifice enablers that help your game plan & are within budget: Plumb the Forbidden is an awesome instant to draw from, and Fanatical Devotion is a pretty cheap free sac outlet that also helps protect your more important creatures. Scapegoat is also solid as budget board protection and sac enabling.

• Neyali, Suns' Vanguard could be a potential swap with Mentor of the Meek. For an additional {R}, she gives your token creatures a decent key word and also provides some card advantage from the impulse draw effect.

• Starry-Eyed Skyrider could also be a solid swap for a suggested cut.

Crow_Umbra on Let's Play with Lightning

4 months ago

I'd recommend checking out JackNavi's Angel-themed Isshin deck ¿Attacks? ¡Double them! for some ideas on theme overlaps.

More generally speaking, I think cutting down on maybe 3-5 cards in the 4+ mana range, especially in the 6-8 cmc range, and swapping them for 2 more lands and a couple of mana rocks like Talisman of Hierarchy or Rakdos Signet could help with speeding the deck up.

CommanderNeyo on The Ultimate Warriors (Updated)

4 months ago

I love Mardu! My favorite deck plays a lot like this one.

Below are some of my recommendations, but I would mostly recommend you check out the CommandZone on Youtube - they have a deckbuilding guide that is very good. Also, for some ideas on cards, you can check out EDHREC, which is a database for deckbuilding.

Anywho, here are some of my recommendations:

== ADD ==

Isshin, Two Heavens as One and Windcrag Siege double all your attack triggers.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and Terra, Herald of Hope if you face a lot of removal.

Swords to Plowshares, Damn, Blasphemous Act, and Ruinous Ultimatum for removal.

Boros Charm for protection.

Voice of Victory, Bone-Cairn Butcher, Infantry Shield, and Dalkovan Packbeasts for more Warrior tokens.

Hardened Tactician, Raiders' Spoils, Mindblade Render, Skullclamp, and Zurgo Stormrender for card draw.

Professional Face-Breaker for ramp and card advantage. Boros Signet, Orzhov Signet, Rakdos Signet, Talisman of Conviction, Talisman of Hierarchy, and Talisman of Indulgence for more ramp.

Shared Animosity, Fiery Emancipation, and City on Fire for buffs.

Reconnaissance to remove any creature your opponent blocks so it won't die, and Redoubled Stormsinger to double your tokens.

33 Lands is very low, especially since you have so little card draw and a high average cmc of 2.67. I recommend at least 38, if not 40 - you generally want to be playing a land every turn for the first 5 turns.

== CUT ==

Here are some cards I recommend cutting:

Aeronaut's Wings, Colossus Hammer, Greatsword of Tyr, Inquisitorial Rosette, Mardu Monument, Team Pennant, Amazing Alliance, Cartouche of Solidarity, Rally the Ranks, Shared Triumph, War Effort - Most of these provide modest buffs or require too much mana to use in one go. Most equipment are better in dedicated equipment builds, while Zurgo is generally more about going wide. If you do want to play equipment, I would recommend ones that provide utility (like Sword of the Animist, which you already have) or provide large buffs (like Blackblade Reforged). Cards that only buff your damage by 1 are generally underpowered.

Chromatic Lantern, Commander's Sphere - Your commander is 3-mana, so it is nice to have 2-mana ramp so you can still play your commander on curve.

Diabolic Tutor and Mastermind's Acquisition are a lot of mana for a tutor, and I would generally recommend cutting them.

Anywho, that's a lot, but let me know if any of it was helpful!

Doombeard1984 on The First Skep

6 months ago

Good morning Tulsasaurus_Rex, and thank you for sharing your hive with us.

I have a brood of my own, and much like yourself have had an affinity for Tribal decks, and especially Slivers for the better part of nearly... 2 decades (dang... now I feel old). So I would like to maybe make a couple suggestions if thats ok?

Creatures:

• Sedge Sliver - I would probably remove Crypt Sliver for this as Crystalline Sliver switches this Sliver off. It also works with all those shock lands you have as they have the appropriate land types.
• Quick Sliver - Having flash on all your slivers can be so powerful. I'd take out Blur Sliver. You have haste enablers on Cloudshredder Sliver Heart Sliver and Thrumming Hivepool which are just better. Blur seems like a wasted slot.
• Basal Sliver - Big fan of Basal (goes great in pasta...), as means you can sacrifice those tokens for mana etc. I would remove Winged Sliver as again, you have flying from Cloudshredder Sliver and Galerider Sliver.

Non-Creature spells:

So these I am less sure on what to remove, but will give some explanation as to why I think they may help:

• Eerie Ultimatum - Can see you have Patriarch's Bidding in your maybe board, but I offer this is way better. You get all your things and you opponents get nothing. You even get all your other non-Slivery things.
• Boros Charm - You are playing Slivers, and therefore you are going to attract a board wipe. Boros Charm is the classic "go-to" for making your board indestructible, all for the low price of {W}{R}.
• Removal - Going to mention a few cards here that are just good. Assassin's Trophy, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile. Trophy is another hit anything card, and Swords and Path both exiles tricky creatures your opponents have. All super low cost, to let you spend your mana on better things.
• Card advantage - So I think something like a Mirri's Guile or Sylvan Library just lets you have some card selection of advantage every turn. Lets you make sure you are hitting those land drops, or if you are flooded, you can make sure you are getting gas to help power your deck forward.
• Ramp - Id be looking at maybe Three Visits and Nature's Lore as they can get you any forest type shock land into play, and if you want untapped by paying the 2 life. Id also look at other mana rocks (Ichor Elixir and Fractured Powerstone don't seem that great). Any of the Talismans (Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Unity etc - there is a full cycle) would give you access to colours at only {2}, and up until recently I ran Chromatic Lantern to help with smoothing out any mana issues. Yes it costs {3}, but can be really useful with how mana intensive Slivers can be where {W}{B}{U}{R}{G} is concerned.
• Blasphemous Act/Austere Command - I love these cards. Sometimes you will need to answer a board. Austere Command is modal so gives you lots of flexibility. And if you have Sliver Hivelord on the board, your Sliv's are safe. Blasphemous Act can win you the game if you have a Spiteful Sliver with a board state. Means you can ding 13 damage to any target should this fire, and again may be safe with a Boros Charm or a Sliver Hivelord.

Hope this helps, and have given you a +1. Please feel free to hope on over to my Hive and have a browse (Sliver Overlord - Predatory Super-Organisms)

austintayshus on Red Hot Pain

6 months ago

Fun mono-red build +1

Technically Talisman of Hierarchy isn't legal for your deck since it's color identity is red. I'd recommend a Mind Stone.

Crow_Umbra on Fire Lord Zuko, Honorable Exile

6 months ago

Hey there, glad to see that Fire Lord Zuko is finally on the site. I recently started brewing him up over on Moxfield, but I shifted focus to some of my decks I have IRL.

In some of my initial brain storming with Zuko, I chose to mostly focus on some primary themes that have some overlap: Playing cards from exile via Impulse draw (which you have), Blinking creatures for repeated ETB effects (which you have some already), and lastly focusing mostly on Ally creatures since many of them have ETB effects when they or other Allies enter.

Given that the ATLA set is going to focus pretty heavily on the Ally creature type, and Zuko himself has that as one of his types, I think Blinking to reuse Ally ETBs will eventually be what really fleshes this deck out. This is also party of why I'm waiting a bit longer to brew the deck more.

In terms of what you have for your deck, I would generally suggest focusing most of your deck edits in the 4 cmc and above range. You are pretty heavy on 5 drops especially, but don't really have a lot of ramp to help get you there. On this note, I'd recommend swapping out your two zero-drop Suspend rocks with some more "meat and potatoes" stuff like Talisman of Hierarchy and the others in Mardu colors, or Boros Signet, depending on your preference.

If you're interested, I can link you my deck on Moxfield if you'd like to check it out. I haven't written a primer for it yet, and it's still fairly early in development.