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)

jwhitehorn on Skittles

1 week 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

1 week 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.

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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 ...

2 weeks 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

3 weeks 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 Nexus Stax

1 month 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.

RNR_Gaming on Derevi Nexus Stax

1 month ago

Academy Rector and Prime Speaker Vannifar could probably make a splash in this. Also, Thawing Glaciers and more basics are how many people abuse the untap ability; I'm not sure if your meta has lots of Blood Moon s running around; not saying the mana base isnt solid or anything it's just a suggestion. :)

Weltbild on TatyovaLandfall

1 month ago

Burgeoning Exploration Solemn Simulacrum Skyshroud Claim Nature's Lore Farseek Abundance Sylvan Library Gush Kodama's Reach Sakura-Tribe Elder Sporemound Mana Breach Overburden Wood Elves Yavimaya Elder Llanowar Scout Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip Burnished Hart Farhaven Elf Explore Splendid Reclamation Nissa's Renewal Boundless Realms Nissa's Pilgrimage Animist's Awakening Far Wanderings Life from the Loam Grow from the Ashes Collective Voyage Horn of Greed Ghirapur Orrery Rites of Flourishing Into the Wilds Temple of the False God Myriad Landscape Amulet of Vigor Ghost Town Urban Evolution The Mending of Dominaria Thawing Glaciers Cultivate Sylvan Ranger Manabond Skyshroud Ranger Coral Atoll Ensnare Fathom Seer Flooded Shoreline Meloku the Clouded Mirror Parallax Tide Planar Overlay Storm Cauldron Tidal Bore Thwart Trade Routes Tragic Lesson Uyo, Silent Prophet

bushido_man96 on Lord Windgrace Hired an Orcish Lumberjack

1 month ago

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

lifemtg, Retreat to Hagra is already in the decklist.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor, that's some great input. Unfortunately, I won't be adding Scapeshift or Crucible of Worlds to the deck, as they are out of my budget. Adding Gitrog and Angry Omnath is going to be costly enough right now. Need for Speed is interesting, though. Would you run that over Concordant Crossroads if you have one? Having another land sac outlet is nice.

Poly_raptor, thanks for all the ideas. Ramunap Excavator will get added, but not Crucible of Worlds , for budgetary reasons. I don't mind that Rites of Flourishing benefits others at the table; I run it in several decks. I guess the question is, do you think I'll need to run it once I get The Gitrog Monster and Mina and Denn, Wildborn added into the deck? I'm just trying to make sure I've got enough extra land drop outlets to run faster, and it's budget friendly; I'm not going in on Azuza, Lost but Seeking (your wallet) or Oracle of Mul Daya because the prices on those cards are ludicrous. I might have a copy of Burgeoning to add in, though.

As for the lands: Darigaaz's Caldera is already in, and I think I'll add in Undiscovered Paradise , and perhaps Ghost Town later on (it doe work in my Tatyova deck). Thawing Glaciers is great, but too pricey once again. Also, thank you guys for the land count considerations, too. I'll have to experiment with it. I've noticed with the current count, I've always got plenty.

The land droppers are under consideration; I just don't know where I'll have room for them once I get everything else I want crammed into this.

So, thanks again guys for all the help! That just leaves Mina and Denn, Wildborn , Omnath, Locus of Rage , Ramunap Excavator , and Abundance to squeeze in.

Is Groundskeeper worth keeping around?