Temple of the False God

Land

: Gain . Activate this ability only if you control five or more lands.

Discussion (49)

plakjekaas on Arch of Orazca

2 weeks ago

Do you guys only play games that end with your hand still full of cards? I've used this one in many decks, especially decks that run out their hand fast. Once you have the 10 permanents out, you can never lose the city's blessing. Paying 6 mana for an additional card is fine when it's turn 13 and everyone ran everything in each others' boardwipes and are now topdecking. And in that stage of the game, I was glad I had this card out, because even when topdecking a land, my lands draw me cards to keep going.

It is priceless to have those effects on utility lands. Even if you never draw a card with them, they still pay for your spells and you lost nothing by running them.

Unlike things like Maze of Ith or Temple of the False God that can do literally nothing depending on your boardstate, the carddraw lands are still Wastes with upside and no opportunity cost to help you beat your opponents who play Painful Quandary or every single version of Planar Cleansing.

If my commander doesn't draw cards, I'll have at least one of these in the deck because not every deck curves out perfectly and is able to spend all mana every turn. Sometimes all you draw is lands and this is the difference between playing the game, or being bored while others play the game. Don't overload on lands like these, obviously, there's a downside to colorless lands in colored decks, and every color has more efficient cards to help you with card advantage, but actually calling them unplayable? I would only be able to say that with a straight face if RNG in Magic was always on my side.

DoomNoodle on Neyith & Eldrazi

3 weeks ago

The only problem with the mentioned cards above is they are just straight onto the battlefield rather than cast. almost all eldrazi are cast procs rather than ETB ones so if you are ok with losing their casting abilities by all means the above will do just nicely! otherwise I would just focus on a hard ramp early game with mana doublers and land tutors. also things like Eye of Ugin ,Eldrazi Temple ,Conduit of Ruin ,Urza's Incubator to make them cost less. use lands like Temple of the False God ,Shrine of the Forsaken Gods ,Guildless Commons ,Ancient Tomb in combonation with a Forsaken Monument to add value to any you tap! From Beyond can produce you some scions for mana and blockers early and also a nice eldrazi tutor when needed after ramp is done. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma will make them cost less AND give them +1/+1 trample!

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

1 month 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!!!)

1 month 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!!!)

1 month 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!

Azeworai on Scarecrow Legion

2 months ago

Well met, fair complice of the fields. I as well wield a Reaper King strategy, whereupon I deign to proffer aid unto thee.

Cordialities aside, the King was my third commander deck of sixteen, created quite the meiny of years agone. Hereon, I offer my insight.

I am surprised to an artifact list bereft of Scrap Mastery. It retrieves all from the graveyard and piles up a multitude of triggers.

I see a fair amount of noncreature cards within this list. May I rcommend Whirlwind of Thought? It draws, it draws, it draws, and it draws: everything a player could ever desire.

Favor of the Mighty is one I have quite enjoyed, for there are not many creatures that cost ten to cast. Given that your list seems dependent upon the commander, this does a lot of work.

Many artifacts begets a splendid deck for Jhoira. Each planeswalker and each artifact now cycles.

Shimmyr grants an instant-speed Reaper, a terrifying fright. Subsequential plays of scarecrows now are instants, as well.

Let us speak of a seigneur. He ramps and draws, bestowing an endless engine. This card is explosive and interminably so.

Coming away from deck-specific suggestions, there are a fair few cards I put in all of my lists capable of doing so.

Allow me to introduce you to Unfulfilled Desires. Flooding? Great! Mana-screwed? Still great! Just have a spare two mana laying about indolently? Loot twice! This card is absolutely great. I find it being helpful in literally every deck, thus I cannot recommend it more.

Impulse is fantastic. Put it in and do not look back.

Once Upon a Time is still an unbalanced card, even in Commander. I love to see it at all moments.

There are a few cards I would ablate from this list, if you do not mind my saying.

Geth's Verdict is a potent card, but is best in 1v1 settings. A hard kill spell is more reliable. Given the option, they shall just sacrifice a token. If you are desperate for an edict effect, try Soul Shatter. It hits each opponent instead of just one. For your other edicts, I would just replace them with Anguished Unmaking and Despark, maybe a Heartless Act.

Now, I enjoy spicy inclusions, but I find them difficult to justify when there are just better options. Dispatch is one such card. It requires a board-state to be active. It may be a small feat to achieve that, but Path to Exile is not dependent on anything.

Calculated Dismissal and Clash of Wills... Just run Counterspell and Negate. Each is highly efficient. You also have Rakshasa's Disdain and Spell Shrivel. Why not Sinister Sabotage and Dissolve? The ones in the list are needlessly inefficient.

I have many negative opinions about Fane of the Mendacious Deity, so I shall leave them out of the comment.

Training Grounds seems to only help around six or seven creatures in the deck, which doesn't seem very potent enough by itself. Even if it goes infinite in a shenanigan, you do not have many tutors to find it under that circumstance.

That shall be all from be. Fare thee well.

Here is my list if you care to peer upon it: The Season of Mechanical Harvest

Davinoth on Urza Tyrant $1000 Budget (Current = $988.87)

2 months ago

     Very cool build, +1! =D

     I feel like you could use a reliable way to win the game when things don't go to plan. Maybe Blightsteel Colossus and/or perhaps The Antiquities War to compliment Tezzeret the Seeker. In that same vein of thinking All Is Dust could be handy as well. Unwinding Clock is a nice dose of cheese too, if that's up your alley.

     A few lands I'd recommend as well - Emergence Zone, Mirrorpool, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods, Temple of the False God, Spire of Industry and maybe the Urza's cycle as well. If that doesn't strike your fancy (or even both) I could suggest switching to Snow-Covered basics and running Extraplanar Lens as well. =)

multimedia on Kess Combo

3 months ago

Hey, interesting start on a budget version of Kess.

Some cards to consider adding:

• Baleful Strix
• Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• Arcane Signet: at TCGPlayer can get it for less than $3.
• Izzet Signet
• Dimir Signet: can get it for less than $1.
• Rakdos Signet
• Crumbling Necropolis: Grixis Tri land.
• Shivan Reef: can get it for less than $1.
• Smoldering Marsh
• Grixis Panorama
• Opal Palace
• Dimir Aqueduct
• Izzet Boilerworks
• Rakdos Carnarium

Cards to consider cutting for these:

• Temple of the False God: it will not tap for mana until your fifth turn which is really bad.
• Vivid Marsh: when it runs out of two counters it can only tap for black.
• Dimir Guildgate
• Swiftwater Cliffs
• 4x Mountain
• Guard Gomazoa or Fog Bank
• Sage's Row Denizen
• Izzet Chronarch
• Mnemonic Wall
• Salvager of Secrets
• Possessed Skaab

---

Baleful Strix is a two drop who draws a card when it ETB, that way you can blink it with Deadeye to draw many cards. When you assemble Deadeye + Drake for infinite mana then being able to infinite blink a creature who draws can draw your win condition or draw and cast all cards in your deck. It's possible you could have a win condition already on the battlefield or in hand or graveyard with Kess, but if not then infinite blinking Strix lets you draw it.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury can be a win condition with Deadeye + Drake. It's not opponent mill, it's better, it's opponent exile their libraries and with infinite mana you get to cast all your opponent's cards. Arcane Signet , Izzet Signet, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet are some two drop mana rocks so you're not only relying on lands to have enough mana to cast cards.

I don't think you need to play so many creatures who recur an instant or sorcery because isn't that what Kess is for? That's the advantage of Kess, you get to cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard on your turns, but once you resolve that spell is exiled. An exiled spell is no longer in your graveyard to recur to your hand. Archaeomancer is the only creature you want for this effect because you also have blink spells as well as Deadeye and creature recursion/reanimation spells for Archaeomancer.

Good luck with your deck.