Thawing Glaciers

Land

Thawing Glaciers enters the battlefield tapped.

, : Search your library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. Return Thawing Glaciers to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next cleanup step.

Discussion (50)

XaiLo on Kokusho, the Evening Star

2 months ago

Hey man! I found you on youtube. I've been searching for fellow Koko players. it's crazy how few of us there are!

I recently built my Kokusho deck and it's become my absolute favorite deck to pilot. I love your deck and I'm totally stealing some of the cards you run. I'm gonna throw my deck at you too and see if you like any of the ideas I have, one fellow Kokusho player to another. These are just ideas or suggestions, take 'em or leave 'em obviously.

Creatures:

Soldevi Adnate - Wait a turn sac outlet. Soldevi can only be used once per turn but it gives you 6 mana!

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed - An extra reanimat in between every reanimate you're able to complete without him. clutch!

Chainer, Dementia Master - Arguable should be the commander, but I prefer him in the 99 myself. But yeah if I could only run one creature in the 99 I think this would be it.

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth - So much value, especially if you have a Jet Medallion in play. It feels like you're casting everything for free. K'rrik + Chainer + Koko (in GY or on the battlefield) + any sac outlet = combo for the win.

Villis, Broker of Blood - For us he basically says "x: draw x cards, then draw x cards again" that is mana efficient card draw.

Personally I only run 8 creatures in the 99. These 5 absolutely make the cut. (Gary, Disciple, and Crypt Ghast are my other picks which you are already running. Gonti I sometimes throw in just for fun, he doesn't make the deck more powerful but he's fun to play in casual pods. I like stealing cards from people.)

Sorceries.

We actually don't have any sorceries in common. Although I have been considering adding Exsanguinate. Anyway, here are some I suggest:

Reanimate - the Original Gangsta of reanimation. The namesake thereof. Very mana efficient. It hurts us a tiny bit in the life lost department. But you came to the right place if you want some life to spend.

Bubbling Muck - very good min-late game ramp spell.

Damnation - An efficient board wipe. It's basically Wrath of God in black.

Toxic Deluge - Also very efficient for us who love to spend life. It can get around indestructible too. I actually feel like I should be running MORE board wipes. Afterall, I have a creature that wants to die and I have very few other creatures. But these two were the best I could find. I also might add Mutilate .

Demonic Tutor - a Classic.

Diabolic Intent - Sac outlet plus a tutor.

Praetor's Grasp - i love stealing from opponents. You can usually find someone at the table that you think will have an Ashnod's Alter. But you can always find something good.

Scheming Symmetry - I like being political and making deals, this is a good way to do that.

Exhume - I can usually find a time to use it when it won't benefit opponents too much. Either way, it's 2 mana to reanimate Koko.

Footsteps of the Goryo - 3 mana to reanimate. Plus it sacs at end of turn, although i often have sac'd and reanimated it again by that time.
You have a lot of Graveyard to hand effects, which are great, but I much prefer Graveyard to Battlefield.

Instants. I don't have Thrilling Encore but it is my style of play, so i just might add that one. I don't have Tragic Slip either but I can't say it's a bad card. Definitely a good removal spell.

I do have the other three that you have and they are amazing.

a few more I like:

Abnormal Endurance - 2 mana to pre-reanimate or "Preanimate" if you will.

Corpse Dance - 3 mana to reanimate. Plus Koko can come in and swing for 5 in the air so that's a plus. I almost never attack with him otherwise. Buyback on this makes it an absolute must.

Goryo's Vengeance - 1 mana to reanimate, again with haste! you want a sac outlet though else it exile at end of turn. (sends Koko back to command zone, but still, you're rather he die again of course. This one can actually be spliced onto the other Goryo which is fun and seldom happens. lol plus you can't target Koko with both of them if you do it that way, but hey, maybe you get Gary AND Koko.

Grim Return - 3 mana to bring back anything from any graveyard. Usually Koko, but maybe you want something else from someone else's bin. this can get it done. Instant speed is nice.

Sacrifice - one time sac outlet but also net 5 mana ritual! not bad at all.

Shallow Grave - This one, like Corpse Dance, picks only the top card so be careful the order you put things into graveyard. 2 mana to reanimate. yes please.

Undying Evil - very similar to Supernatural Stamina although I actually prefer this one because it leaves him up to block in case you need that.

Vampiric Tutor - not budget at all obviously. But if you have one, this is a great place for it.

Wake the Dead - Kind of niche, but you can usually sac at instant speed so waiting for opponents turn isn't so bad normally. 3 mana to reanimate Koko and sac him again. already quite good. but you could pay 1 more and bring back Gary too if he's in there. 1 more brings back . . .Runescarred Demon or whatever. it only gets better and better in the late game with more mana available and more cards in the graveyard.

Artifacts.

Blade of Selves - So this is my number 1 recommendation. It's my favorite card in all of MTG and it's the reason I even wanted to make this deck. I use BoS in my green decks a lot, and I have never made a black deck before but I kept thinking how awesome this would be on Kokusho so... here we are. As long as you have 3 opponents this card says "at the beginning of your combat step gain 30 life and each opponent loses 10 life." Plus you're swinging for 5 in the air so you can point that at the person with the highest life total and hopefully keep all opponents closer together so you don't get to that awkward late game where Koko dies and only gains you 5 or 10 life. Token copies can be abused as well. For instance, You swing Koko equipped with Blade, 2 tokens ETB, you kill one and then let's say you keep the other one and send the real koko to the graveyard because you have an instant speed reanimate effect but no sac outlet. You reanimate him and bam, legend rule triggers again and you kill him again or kill the token this time. You will have to spend 4 more mana to re-equip Blade but it can be worth it at times. Speaking of token copies of koko...

Minion Reflector - Basically a colorless Bramble Sovereign, another card that I love love love in my green decks. Minion reflector makes a copy, kills the real guy, the copy can attack, then maybe you reanimate Koko and let the copy die this time.

Mirage Mirror - This can be another Cabal Coffers, or a copy of an opponent's Zendikar Resurgent... it's insanely versatile.
you could stack triggers, making it become a copy of Kokusho and then before that resolves you make it a copy of Soldevi Adnate who you just cast. Soldevi has summoning sickness but Mirage Mirror doesn't so you become a copy of Soldevi, then tap to sac Kokusho and add 6 mana, then the first activation resolves and Mirage Mirror becomes Kokusho who isn't even around anymore. It's tapped, but that doesn't matter much, you can sac it for value, or maybe reanimate Kokusho who comes back into what otherwise would have been no sac outlet but now the legend rule triggers and you get another death trigger. End of turn Mirage Mirror is just a tapped Mirage Mirror again.
Similarly...

Mirror of the Forebears - even cheaper version of Mirage Mirror but not nearly as versatile. I always name "Spirit" because Koko is my only dragon but Crypt Ghast is a Spirit so there's a chance I'll want MotF to be a Crypt Ghast later on. Usually though it just becomes a Kokusho until end of turn to give me free repeatable "sacrifice" (not really but essentially the same thing). speaking of dragons...

Dragon's Hoard - This is fun, although I might take it out because there are more powerful things that could be added. But yeah, it's a 3 mana mana rock. Ramp is kind of important early game when you have a 6 mana commander and your whole deck revolves around him. But then you start adding Gold Counters and now it's an extra card you get to draw pretty much every turn.

Phyrexian Altar - Yeah I'd choose Ashnod's over this but it's a close second. well worth the slot IMO.

Blasting Station - Another great sac outlet. Repeatable. and you can ping down opponents' life totals or ping their small utility creatures.

Bolas's Citadel - This is how you get card advantage in mono black. And with koko we have plenty of life to spend! Finishes the game a little faster too, as soon as opponents are under 10 life you might be able to sac everything and tka 'em to 0.

Cauldron of Souls - Not as good as Mikaeus because he might reanimate Koko 2 or 3 times in a turn, but Cauldron is still awesome and can reanimate everybody you've got. Plus, being an artifact, it's a little more resilient than Mike.

Cursed Totem - I might take this out since stax aren't my style. But it is very powerful. Chainer, Vilis, and Soldevi are the only creatures in my entire deck that this hurts.

Jet Medallion - I'm often casting 3 or 4 spells in a turn so this can really put in the work.

Lifeline - interesting effect. it's symmetrical so be careful. but trust me, you'll get more use form it than they will. But yeah, I'd rather play group hug effects that benefit me more than they rather than stax effects that hurt they more than me. Anyway, this brings back anything that dies at the end of the turn, as long as there is another creature on the battlefield. When i'm not trying to win very hard and I just want a fun interesting game this will often be the target of my tutors. If I wanna win I grab Chainer and K'rrick :)

Strionic Resonator - Guess what's better than getting one death trigger from a dying Spirit Dragon? . . .

Well of Lost Dreams - Draw as many cards as you want for 1 mana each. not a bad deal at all.

Wishclaw Talisman - Another tutor, but one that can make friends. I usually pick the person I want to befriend and I say ""I'ma use the first wish, I'll give you the second wish if you give me the third. Deal?" If they won't make the deal I pick another opponent. Someone is likely willing to do it, and you end up with basically 2 Demonic Tutors.

Enchantments.

You have amazing enchantments. I don't yet own Wound Reflection or Exquisite Blood but when I get them they will definitely go in this deck. Black Market is AMAZING, Sanguine Bond is a must. The others I don't run but they are great cards. A few I recommend:

Necropotence - After Vilis this is the best card draw spell in my deck. My playgroup always targets it because it can get crazy ESPECIALLY if you have Thought Vessel or Reliquary Tower in play. I've considered running Shimmer Myr and Vedalken Orrery so I can just draw my whole deck minus 1 or 2 cards, and then chain some rituals into Shimmer Myr into Vedalken Orrery into either a win or a Spellbook to keep my hand. But yeah, I don't run those right now. Just reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel. But even without those, I usually pay enough life to draw up to 10 and then I have to exile 3 cards. But it's so much card draw and card selection!

Attrition - Very nice creature removal

Gate to Phyrexia - Very nice artifact removal, although it has been annoying that it can only happen at upkeep. Still worth though!

Tainted AEther - Super mean stax piece. Great for the Kokusho player, not great for anyone else.

Lethal Vapors - This one is even meaner somehow. And I love that it has it's own demise onit. like "hey, you're welcome to end this meanness any time you want man..." My friends have learned to just kill it as soon as it comes out, it's just a matter of who will be the one to lose a turn for the team. pretty funny stuff.

Dawn of the Dead - Kinda like Lifeline but even better IMO. It reanimates at upkeep and gives haste. It's interesting that this and Cauldron of Souls and Chainer and Mikaeus and Lifeline and Corpse Dance with buyback all cost 5 mana. Apparently that's the sweetspot for repeatable reanimates.

Unholy Indenture - A preanimate effect that can steal opponents' creatures if you want to use it for that.

Kaya's Ghostform - Another preanimate for only 1 mana. Also beings it back from exile! I noticed you have a couple planeswalkers as well, this can bring them back too, with renewed loyalty of course, and ready to use a second tie if you killed them on your turn. It's just 1 mana! insane!

Necromancy , Dance of the Dead , and Animate Dead are three more reanimate spells. They have a lot of text but basically they bring koko from GY to battlefield. All three can steal from opponents' graveyards if you so choose. Necromancy can be played as an instant.

Lands.

I'm currently re-thinking my lands package. I have Field of the Dead so I've kind of gone pretty heavily into running all differently named lands. I have a few Swamps, a few Snow-Covered Swamps, and then a bunch of great stuff and a bunch of janky terrible stuff lol. But I'm thinking i might clean it up a bit and go with more basics to help out Cabal Coffers more.

I'm super jealous of your Cavern of Souls. I would love to get one of those someday. And I too run Glacial Chasm. It can be a really important card in some games. A funny janky combo that I've never done but hope to one day is to have Glacial Chasm in play and Lethal Vapors and then I activate Lethal Vapor's skipping my next turn, but before it resolves and kills Lethal Vapors I activate it again, 1 billion times. Then it dies and I skip all my turns from now on, and if opponents don't have a way to destroy Glacial Chasm, or to drain me of life, then they eventually mill themselves out and lose. Obviously this is very situational, most of the time I feel like they'd be able to find a way to win, but it would be funny nonetheless.

Anyway, good card. Also Nephalia Academy. I didn't even know about that card but I'ma get one and start playtesting it. very interesting effect!

Geier Reach Sanitarium - Sometimes you really want a certain card in your graveyard, this can help you put it there.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - A classic. Don't forget it might help opponents too though.

Cabal Coffers - Pair with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for lots of manas.

Gemstone Caverns - Possible turn ramp with little downside.

Ancient Tomb - better in the early game than Temple of the False God. The life loss can add up though, even in a Kokusho deck. In casual meta with longer games it isn't quite as good as it is in cEDH.

Bojuka Bog - Your enemies might be as keen to play from their graveyard as you are. Hit them before they hit you.

Boseiju, Who Shelters All - depending on your meta it might be really important to have uncounterable sometimes. Especially when you tap out to cast a huge Exsanguinate. Nothing worse than having that Mana Drain'd

Buried Ruin - I have several Artifacts I love in this deck, but most of all my baby, Blade of Selves.

Exotic Orchard - Normally wouldn't be needed in a monocolored deck but if you plan on stealing things from other people it might come in handy. I like Fellwar Stone for the same reason.

Field of the Dead - a powerhouse late game.

High Market - a sac outlet on a land. Run this card! and speaking of sac on a land...

Phyrexian Tower - this is super clutch. It's only once per turn but it's really really good to have.

Diamond Valley - ok I admit I don't own this so it's not in my deck. but if i had a spare 1000 bucks.... this is a great card. It doesn't tap for mana unless you have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play though.

Miren, the Moaning Well - a poor man's Diamond Valley. It does tap for mana though so it's got that over DiamondV. but it will cost 3 to tap it and sak Koko.

Mirrorpool - This taps for colorless, and comes into play tapped. so that suck. but... it can become a Kokusho token to that's pretty cool.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - An auto-include in any mono-color deck.

Reliquary Tower - Often overplayed in EDH but in a deck with Vilis or Necropotence it is definitely worth a slot.

Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Not worth it to buy this one for Koko. You pretty much never use it to give him Fear. But it is a differently named card for my Field of the Dead and there's not much downside so... I have it in there for now.

Thawing Glaciers - I think i might take this one out. I don't have many early game ramp spells so I thought this might be good but omg it's so slow! it was aptly named.

Witch's Cottage - This one is up your alley since you like returning from GY to top of library.

Volrath's Stronghold - is another such card with a very similar effect you might like.

I have Vesuva which usually copies Cabal Coffers. and I have Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths for my boi Marit Lage. They make for fun things to tutor from your two wishes on Wishclaw Talisman. There are stronger things that could be done but if you feel like just being silly and smashing face with a 20/20 indestructible flier then there's always that option.

Urborg is a silly land to run, i mean there's no downside other than it isn't a swamp. But there's really no upside either except for people saying "what the hell is that?" which can be fun. Most people have never heard of it and have been calling Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth by this name without realize it belongs to another.

Well if you made it to the end of my novel, congratulations. Let me know what you think of these cards and stay in touch so we can bounce Kokusho ideas off of each other.

Peace!

enpc on White's issues in Commander

3 months ago

Tzefick: I read through the original post, but I want to circle back to it later. And you will have to excuse the order in general, I was responding to this across the course of a day.

On artifact removal

There are a few points to unpack here. The first, and most importantly, is that removal is a big part of Magic, the Gathering and honestly, is what makes games (and deckbuilding) interesting. IF MtG was just about amassing board states and then slamming big creatures into other big creatures, the game would be much more boring (not to mention take much longer). But your argument here basically boils down to "artifacts are bad because they die to removal". I get that there are a bunch of good artifact removal cards, but that doesn't mean that we should stop leaning into artifacts because of it.

As for dealing with removal (especially mass removal) - there are still many options that white already has access to which does actually allow them to ramp. Wayfarer's Bauble , Burnished Hart , Solemn Simulacrum , Kor Cartographer , Knight of the White Orchid are all perfectly valid land ramp cards. Sure, the average CMC of these spells is higher than their green counterparts, however green is THE ramp colour, so it would be expecteded that there would be hihger costs/more contitions to be met for other colours to do a similar thing. And that's without even touching on cards like Sword of the Animist or Explorer's Scope which are both equipment and what white excels at.

In addition to this, while not ramping, white already has access to cards like Weathered Wayfarer , Land Tax , and Tithe which allow you to consistently hit your lands. While not as good as outright ramping, if you're hitting your lands each turn, you're genereally not doing too badly. And when combined with other ramp effects, by mid to late game you still end up with as much mana as most players.

Now onto the artifacts. Yes, there are a lot of good artifact removal effects which can slow players down. But I would also point out a few things here too.

Mana dorks are a very common form of ramp in commander. Most green decks will run a bunch of them and there are even strategies (elf ball) which almost solely relies on them. But just as artifacts can be hated on, white has some of THE best creature removal in the game. This includes both single target but also mass removal, which can severely hamper your opponents with regards to ramp. And unlike green (who is the main comparison point here), white doesn't rely on mana dorks, leaving you relatively unaffected from a mana standpoint.

In addition to this, white has a lot of ways of protecting your stuff from being destroyed, whether it's indestructible, hexproof, just an outright Teferi's Protection (which yes you did mention), or more importantly shutting down an opponent's removal source using Torpor Orb effects, of which white has many. Sure, this doesn't stop everything, but it can shut down a lot of (especially green) big bad ones. We are seeing a lot of these printed in new sets, to the point where WotC are really trying to drive home the point that "this is what white does".

Ok, now circling back (And I will do this more than once) and picking up on my previous paragraph. On the topic of land ramp - white is very good at shutting down this. between all of the MLD, Balance type effects and library shutdown effects like Aven Mindcensor , white hating on green's land ramp is to green hating on artifacts (i.e. white's main ramp source). Again I reiterate, this is what white does. It has been made abundantly clear, since we have time and time again seen printing of cards that equalise the board, to take away other players' advantages. So again I push the point that white is capable, however the issue here is that it's not the way you (or some other casule commander players) want it to be. But again, that's not white's shortfall.

On Graveyard Recursion

This topic follows on from the whole artifact removal thing. Yes, white is very strong in graveyard recursion. And just to touch on one of your points, even recently white got a bunch of graveyard recursion via cards like Daring Archaeologist and Restoration Specialist . Not repeatable sure, but still decent. And let's face it, any mono-white commander product is going to see Sun Titan reprinted. But back to the whole recusrion thing in general - while white is good at recursion, it's permanent based, not specifically land based. Yes, this overlaps (especially in the case of Sun Titan ) but here it's just a bit of nice value.

Land recursion is very much a green thing (I'm not even going to list the cards) and that makes sense. But for white, the recursion is generally symmetric if en masse. And again, this makes sense. White is good at wrecking stuff, so it's also good at bringing stuff back. But the point is that just because you wreck stuff and bring it back symmetrically doesn't mean that you can't exile a graveyard or two in the middle. Ok, but what's my concern with what you're recommending (both across the board but let's talk specifics)?

So, fundamentally I have no issues with the release of white cards which can return permanents from the graveyard to the battlefield, and fundamentally I have no issues with pairing these cards with any kind of fetchlands to ramp. As you mentioned, we have the new Sevinne's Reclamation and Brought Back alongside Sun Titan and Profound Journey .

Where I have issue in this case is not with the concept of having a cheaper spell that hits smaller stuff, but in this case your suggestion. Unforntunately, ther is a fine line between being able to be used early game for ramp purposes and just being broken. The card you proposed is similar in effect to Unearth , though it being able to hit any permanent for 2 mana (yes, even CMC 2 or less) is super good. That means that in legacy it can hit cards like Young Pyromancer , Snapcaster Mage (to get other spells even at sorcery, like itself for example), Thalia, Guardian of Thraben , Wasteland , etc. as well as potentially getting another permanent too. It just seems way too powerful. Sure, we could start tweaking the mana costs/effects but I think you would end up with effectively a functional reprint of Sevinne's Reclamation . And look, if that's what you're going for then that's fine. But that's the danger with working under the guise of returning permanents while focusing on lands.

As for the land sepcific recursion effect though, this just seems out of charater (and heavily moving into green's territory). Just because one card was printed, which again did a symmetric effect (almost seems good with Armageddon + Tormod's Crypt ...) does not mean that it's a shoo-in for more cards to be printed like that. Planar Birth was printed inthe same set as Catastrophe and it seems like those cards were designed to play well with each other. As for hitting land drops each turn, I have no issues with this (hell, I even mentioend it before) and to aid in the available "non-good fetch" fetches, you have Terramorphic Expanse , Evolving Wilds , Myriad Landscape , Grasslands , Flood Plain , Bant Panorama , Esper Panorama , Naya Panorama , Warped Landscape , Terminal Moraine and Thawing Glaciers . That's a pretty good collection of budget fetch effects that already exist. And between Scaretiller , Sun Titan , Sevinne's Reclamation and Crucible of Worlds (and in conjuction with other ramp) there are already options there.

Again, I will double down on my argument that if you look, these cards already exist and can be made to work together in a deck. Yes, Crucible of Worlds has ~$25 USD price tag (at the time of writing this) however that is not too exorbitant for a strong EDH card.

On Other Colours

I get that each colour has its strengths and weaknesses and that when you put all of them alongside each other there will always be a worst colour. But I don't think that's a bad thing. White is an incredibly powerful colour outside of commander, and as a second colour, white is still super good. But mono-white has to have a weakness. In this case, it's slow. Buat again, that's done for a reason - because white represents balance. White might be slow, but it will do a really good job of slowing you down with it. And again, I get that ther will be a group of players who don't want to play all of the stax cards for fear of getting other poeple's backs up. But what about the players who don't care about that? you've now just armed a bunch of people with ramp and draw with their existing supply of stax. Think of how much worse that will be.

Now onto red (since you touched on it) - yes, WotC have come up with a nice balance for red's card advantage (in that it matches red's ramp style) - momentary bursts of value. Rituals and exile - you use it or you lose it kind of effects, which makes sense (and which you pointed out). But it's all done within the bounds of the colour pie still. But everything about white screams that it's card advantage is making sure your opponents don't have cards.

On Budget

While I believe that commander should be avaialble to anyone, there are some cold, hard facts: Some people can spend more than others, and, not everybody within a playgroup has the same budget.

The cards I listed before were budgetless and in most cases, the best of the best. And I understand that only a small portion of commander players actually own said cards. But there are always alternative cards at all budgets, they just may not be as desirable. But that's where my double standard comment came in, which is "if you want to play a colour that doens't have good ramp, but still want the best ramp then either pay the money to buy the good (read "expensive") stuff or deal with the fact that you can't/won't buy it." I don't think that's an unfair statement, and it's a slippery slope once you start pandering to it.

But again, if ther is a budget discrepency within a playgroup then I also don't think that it is WotC's responsiblity to fix it. This is something that the players have to own and is an entire discussion point in an of itself, so I will leave that there. But I think most players would agree with me on this.

On Other Players

Here's where we get to brass tacks (if we haven't already), I wouldn't agree with you on the comment that "a large portion of the commander community" thinks that mono-white needs fixing. Ther eare some poeple, sure. And those people might make a lot of noise about it, but that doesn't mean it's the majority of players. I know that most players who I interact with would agree wiht my viewpoint on it.

And don't get me wrong, I play both casual and competitive lists, I work full time and have funds available to afford nicer cards. A casual list for me sits in the $400-500 range. But before you discount my opinion becasue fo that, hear me out. I have looked at many, many, many lists on tapped out, ranging from <$100 to >$5000 and have learnt a lot over the years. Typically the things I notice is that the kinds of poeple who complain about a lack of XYZ have also employed a lot of bad deck-building practices (no, I'm not implying this on your lists). Really heavy mana curves, little ramp to begin with, high CMC ramp, lack of focused win conditions, all that good stuff. And I'm not saying that the decks are completely unplayable, but a lot of them are really clunky and slow. And I won't begrudge people for building those decks. But if your average CMC is 4.5 and then you're complaining that your deck is slow, that's becasue of the card choices you made. However bad deckbuilding is not WotC's fault.

So compared to those poeple, I will be a bit arrogant and say I undstand balance better than them, yes. But, and more importantly, so does WotC - because they seem to be printing more stax cards for white as sets come out, but not more ramp and card advantage which would fix the non-problem.

cascadien on Black Plague, On The Rocks: Yawgmoth EDH [PRIMER]

3 months ago

Great deck! you are a far more advanced brewer than i so ill just state the obvious with some land suggestions... Leechridden Swamp , Cabal Stronghold , Everglades and Karn's Bastion all seem like they would fit in. also have you considered running Terrain Generator or Thawing Glaciers to get swamps out more frequently or heck even a Black Market for some mana-ramp?

jwhitehorn on Skittles

4 months ago

This is a great start for a budget Skithiryx deck!

You mention ramp, and budget, so here are some things I'd add to help in that regard:

1. First, add Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse , dropping Bad Moon and Rogue's Passage . You are running mono black, so lots of basic lands. The last thing you want to do when trying to ramp is draw a land - use these to help filter.

2. Consider add Thawing Glaciers if you can - same reasons as above. It is "slow", but each usage means you never miss a land drop and you're less likely to top-deck a swamp.

3. I'd drop Skullclamp - great card, but this deck doesn't really put it to the best usage. Better uses for the slot.

4. Look at Vengeful Pharaoh - this is one of my favorite budget cards for mono black EDH. Bulk in recursion, and deathtouch. Use this as a chump blocker, and never worry about it being killed :-)

5. You're short on sweepers. Decree of Pain is a budget friendly option.

6. Black Market gets NUTS in EDH. More mana. Budget friendly. Win-win!

7. I'd drop/reconsider: Jet Medallion & Hedron Archive .

I'll look a little more this evening and see if I can help more. It's far from budget, from take a look at my Skittles deck: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/skittles-25-08-12-1/

Tzefick on Protean Palace

4 months ago

It kinda reminds me of a variant of Thawing Glaciers . It's better on its own but for decks that can untap it , it is worse.

I'm kinda struggling to see where this actually fits in.

I wouldn't say it's powerful so on the aspect of balance you've not gone overboard on the powerful side, but it may actually be acceptable to lower the activation to 2 from 3 without too much of an issue.

---

Personally after seeing Prismatic Vista I kinda hope WotC will print more similar looking variants to boost basic land types in general.

Kinda looking forward to Shard or Khan -esque fetchlands. We have had the Panorama cycle , but they are much too slow to be considered anything but budget alternatives. Something like;

Panorama Fetchland (Esper)

Land

, pay 1 life, sacrifice ~ : Search your library for a basic Plains, Island or Swamp, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

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And...

Khan's Fetchlands (Mardu)

Land

, pay 1 life, sacrifice ~ : Search your library for a basic Plains, Swamp or Mountain, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

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They are essentially fetchlands for basics but can grab a wider array of lands to compensate that they grab basics and thus cannot mana fix as well as standard fetchlands, which with the dual lands can essentially grab any color.

Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are quite slow but are still useful for decks that want to cycle through their deck, gains benefits from sacrifice or additional land entries.

We need some better basic land filtering to rival fetchlands and their crime buddies; true duals , cycling duals , shock lands , and battle lands .

dingusdingo on Blood Moon in Four-Color Mana ...

4 months ago

You've correctly identified some methods already used (signets, dorks) which are extremely common in decks. This is because they 1) ramp 2) color fix 3) spread mana across permanent types to avoid getting wiped. You should DEFINITELY run the signets/talismans and available dorks, they are so incredibly efficient at what they do and at very low real dollar cost, and are diversified to avoid getting totally wiped. I know you want more lands but also consider Armageddon only costs $4 and has already had so many printings and you will see it in competitive decks and other low-tuner competitive decks. If you run Blood Moon on a budget, absolutely run the talismans and signets I can't stress that enough.

However, being a budget boy who wants to go fast myself, I've stumbled across similar questions before, so I'm more than willing to share what I've gleaned. You pretty much want cards that WILL come down turn 1 or 2, cards that give free stuff for cheap $$$, or or pump up those basic land #'s. You may also notice that in typical Blood Pod lists, there aren't that many red cards or red mana sources, and that many of my recommendations are green. You're going to want to weight your colors so red is a smaller part and to run very few red lands because all your nonbasics become Mountains, so run your nonbasics to include a red splash and then run more forests.

Sakura-Tribe Elder

It is a Rampant Growth on legs that can block-then-sac on annoying early creatures like Tymna the Weaver . Brings you to a basic so works with BM, it can swing to get Tymna triggers. It spiked a while ago but its still decently cheap to buy.

Rampant Growth Farseek Nature's Lore

Nature's Lore is the best of these three, as the forest enters untapped and it can grab shocklands with a Forest type if you dont have BM out. Growth gives the most utility by giving you any basic land for BM. Farseek gives any but a forest, but you have to make a green to cast it so you've got at least one green somehow. These are extremely playable fixer/ramp cards on a budget and are really going to help you with a budget Blood Moon land base. I recommend these over the 3 CMC counterparts Cultivate Kodama's Reach because they come out a turn faster so far lower chance you're going to get staxed out. They curve extremely well into having 4 mana on turn 3 (Tana on turn 3?), as opposed to using all your turn 3 mana for a big turn 4. They also raise the amount of keepable hands you will have, as 2 mana + growth gets you to Tymna, while 2 mana + Cultivate is a mulligan more times. They're even enjoyable to see sometimes late game after MLD.

Arcum's Astrolabe

Insane color fixing and it cantrips, the only problem is you have to run snow-basics instead. If you happen to have enough snow basics laying around, this is a very solid bet for color fixing.

Chromatic Sphere Chromatic Star

One of these is much cheaper to purchase, so I highly recommend that one. Fixes and cantrips, you really don't mind drawing them late at all.

Springleaf Drum

Color fixer and ramper, works real well with BM. Just add creatures.

Fetchlands

If you have them, they will deck thin + get you to the correct basic land. I know fetchlands are expensive, so also consider that there is a lesser known cycle of mirage ETB tapped fetchlands, while definitely worse, are much cheaper. Sleeper cards tagged for your convenience Flood Plain Bad River Rocky Tar Pit Mountain Valley Grasslands . Also DEFINITELY run Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse if you don't already. More sleeper fetches that might interest you Krosan Verge Thawing Glaciers

Simian Spirit Guide Elvish Spirit Guide

Nice replacements for Mox Opal and Mox Diamond . They let you hit signets/talismans/growths/big dorks on turn 1. They help you escape from underneath Trinisphere or Sphere of Resistance . They are slot intensive, but with Tymna in command zone to guarantee draws I would also highly recommend these. These will be invaluable in helping you get a stronger start than more expensive opposing stax decks. They're a small hit to the wallet but once again, fraction of the price of Opal/Diamond.

Wild Growth Utopia Sprawl

I didn't see these listed in the OP or in comments, so I definitely wanted to bring them up. Work extremely well to accelerate and color fix, they also work with Blood Moon . They're enchantments so it gives extra diversity from creatures/artifacts against wipes. Works extremely well with Arbor Elf and Voyaging Satyr

Landcycling

Tutors basic land of your choice to your hand. There are a couple downsides though 1) Doesn't ramp you at all 2) Most cards with landcycling aren't very good for the actual spell. Landcycling does have a few big perks though 1) its an activated ability, which makes it MUCH harder to interact with and mostly immune to stax effects 2) minor bonus utility of actually playing the card 3) it will become a land eventually so it dodges more hate than other permanent types. This would be effective if you had other strong stax decks in your meta, or a crazy amount of counterspells, but otherwise I'd try one of the other ones I listed first.

king-saproling on Eldrazi KNT

5 months ago

Maybe some landfall/untapping shenanigans? Could include stuff like Somberwald Sage , Bloom Tender , Empowered Autogenerator , Retreat to Coralhelm , Walking Atlas , Sakura-Tribe Scout , Tatyova, Benthic Druid , Chakram Retriever , Quicksilver Dagger , Jeskai Ascendancy , Kiora's Follower , Market Festival , Dawn's Reflection , Stone-Seeder Hierophant , Thawing Glaciers

bc_17100 on Derevi Stax

5 months ago

RNR_Gaming Wow I didn't even think about adding rector, that's a great suggestion. As for the Thawing Glaciers , the possibility to search for a lot of basics is cool but considering the amount of fetches I run it shouldn't be hard to get the few basics I have in the deck out. Vannifar is also another 4 drop and I'm starting to think I have a couple too many.