Thalia, Heretic Cathar

Legendary Creature — Human Soldier

First strike (This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike or double strike.)

Creatures and nonbasic lands your opponents control enter tapped.

Combos

• Thalia, Heretic Cathar + Winter Orb

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
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

Idoneity on Oh Jackdaw Sing Arrogance

2 days ago

Austin_Smith_of_Cards — Oooh! Thank you kindly for the suggestions. I'll pore through them one-by-one.

That Thalia is a lovely card and I do enjoy some taxes in competitive formats, but I do consider it a little too pesky for commander gameplay.

Thalia, Heretic Cathar, however, is one of my favourite cards. I am frankly surprised she did not find a home already. What to cut, I wonder...

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire is certainly a strong card, and I will probably include it over a Swamp if I can ever find my spare. I am currently at the minimum number possible Plains.

To rack a few out of the way quickly Swords to Plowshares isn't my thing, as I don't like liminal kill spells all too much. Same goes for Path to Exile. I didn't want this to be a sac deck, so I avoided effects like Elas il-Kor and Nasty End. Primevals' Glorious Rebirth is a little grandiose for the "little guys" game plan I wanted to hone. And Teysa Karlov is only so good in this list, as only so many cards are dedicated to tokens.

As for the gleaming diamonds in this bunch, Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle might be simply too good to pass up. It synergies far too efficiently for me to exclude, so it will be the next card in. Secondarily, you are correct that this list struggles against noncreature strategies, so Kambal, Consul of Allocation slots in nicely.

Thank you for your feedback and have an excellent day!

Austin_Smith_of_Cards on Oh Jackdaw Sing Arrogance

1 week ago

Looking like a pretty solid list with lots of card advantage and ramp, and a fantastic mana curve to boot. Where this list could use some improvement is in the interaction category; 4 spot removals and 2 wraths is a bit too low, and makes you vulnerable to solitaire-style decks like combo or spellslinger.

Some cards that immediately come to mind are Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire. The first two are cheap legendary creatures that impede ramp decks, haste decks, and spellslinger. Eiganjo, much like Witch Enchanter, is a sort of modal card that can serve as a land or removal if need be. Kambal, Consul of Allocation punishes spells-heavy lists hard. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle recurs fodder on cast, which means that even with an otherwise empty board, you can get something from your yard for your legendary creature to sacrifice.

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are the best bang for your buck removals white has access to; I'd make room for them as well.

Other random suggestions:

Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim adds incidental life loss and gain as you're generating and sacrificing stuff. Bonus points for being legendary and a cheap rattlesnake effect.

Teysa Karlov unfortunately doesn't double up exploit triggers, but it does buffer your tokens defensively and double up any non-exploit death triggers.

Nasty End is a cheap synergistic one-shot card advantage effect.

Primevals' Glorious Rebirth is a solid way to bounce back from a boardwipe, or just outright recur everything you've lost over the course of the game.

legendofa on Baird, Steward of Control

4 months ago

My first thought here is to slow down your opponents' mana production. Imi Statue and Kataki, War's Wage shut down mana rocks. Kismet, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Loxodon Gatekeeper, and Archon of Emeria shut down lands for a turn. Winter Moon shuts down nonbasic lands.

You can also get your opponents' creatures to work for you with Martial Impetus, Bloodthirsty Blade, and Redemption Arc. If they're forced to attack each other, they can't attack you.

DarkKiridon on Budget Mono White Humans

1 year ago

Some suggestions for other humans would be Hanweir Militia Captain  ^Flip since you run a lot of them it could flip quickly. The other Thalia, Heretic Cathar in case you're up against another creature heavy deck to slow them down. Also Declaration in Stone is good white removal especially against token creatures.

fluffyeel on Sen Triplets - Esper Control (Seeking Help)

1 year ago

I would joke about "how can it be a Stax deck without Smokestack", but that's separate, and instead I'll offer up some possibly evil advice:

• Teferi's Puzzle Box or any wheel effect (like Echo of Eons) is obnoxious with Narset, Parter of Veils or Notion Thief. You could also go for Alms Collector for extra obnoxiousness.
• Raffine's Tower is a fetchable tri-land, so highly recommended. Not sure what your budget is, but other handy lands include Reflecting Pool, Field of the Dead (if you can swap out some lands for snow lands), Mana Confluence, Temple of the False God, the Fetches on-color (or even Prismatic Vista or Fabled Passage if you're basic-heavy). If you're basic heavy, maybe go for Back to Basics if you know there are lots of non-basic lands running around...
• In terms of Teferi's Protection comboing, why not Sunder?
• For removal, I highly recommend Vindicate and Anguished Unmaking. Elspeth Conquers Death is pinpoint plus reanimation, which can be handy. Cyclonic Rift is really quite pricey (surprisingly), but an excellent nuke.
• As for stealing opponents' things, I can suggest Commandeer, Desertion, Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Telemin Performance... you could also use things like Silent-Blade Oni, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, and Fallen Shinobi for extra stealing fun, but given that they're Ninjas, they don't work as well without a dedicated Ninja strategy.
• Thalia, Heretic Cathar is another fun "Stax" card, as is Authority of the Consuls.
• Tutors are awesome (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Profane Tutor, Lim-Dul's Vault...), but not sure which ones you have ready access to. I also recommend Expedition Map to help get more lands.
• For some card draw, Teferi, Time Raveler, Sphinx's Revelation, and Fact or Fiction might be worth considering.

Crow_Umbra on Salty Commanders!

2 years ago

Hi grumbledore, I know you have plenty on your plate from things we've all been reporting to you, but I wanted to bring a few more things to your attention:

• Decks with Maybeboards that are from Archidekt seem to have the Maybeboard factored/calculated in as if they were a part of the 99 for that deck.

• Aggravated Assault was listed as a Ramp card, and not an Aggro card.

I know you made an update to categorize more cards a couple days ago, but in addition to other Uncategorized I previously mentioned, the following also lack categories:

• Baleful Strix - Draw, even if it is a Cantrip effect?

• No Mercy Could be Removal and/or Stax.

• Wall of Omens & Spirited Companion - Draw

• The Pathway lands - Barkchannel Pathway  ^Flip, etc

• Extinction Event - Removal

• Thalia, Heretic Cathar - Stax

• Stonehorn Dignitary - Stax or counter, especially in the context of a Blink or reanimation deck, since it blanks a combat

NV_1980 on Dihada, Binder of Wills

2 years ago

Hi Mattio38, thanks for elaborating a bit. There are a lot of interesting legendary creatures out there, but not many that will help you to outright close out games AND be cheap to cast. It's usually one or the other :) It also depends on how you want to close out games and how many turns you want to take for that.

For instance, white provides some excellent legendary creatures to block your opponents' progress. I'm thinking of cards like Myrel, Shield of Argive, Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant  ^Flip, Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker, Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Linvala, Keeper of Silence.

Black legendary creatures have some massive damage dealing and recursion capacity. Especially cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Gisa, Glorious Resurrector, Ghoulcaller Gisa and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.

And then there are some red legendaries you haven't considered yet that influence your damage-dealing capacity, like Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Drakuseth, Maw of Flames and Moraug, Fury of Akoum. By the way, I'd also really recommend Grenzo, Havoc Raiser as he's given me some insane value in past games.

Not sure if any of this helps, but here you go.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Basics matter theme - Mono …

2 years ago

I have an idea that might be a little far off, bug hear me out:

White is good in catching up to opposing land counts. There are especially colourless ways to allow opponents to get more lands, which you could use to ramp using white "catch-up" ramp. The commander for that? Thalia, Heretic Cathar.