Thoughtcast

Sorcery

Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)

Draw two cards.

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
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

trippy_mcfly on Cumly Cube

5 months ago

Introducing Cumly Cube 1.3! Two years ago, Cumly Cube was updated to Cumly Cube 1.2, creating a balanced cube and wonderful play experience for all involved. Despite these changes, there remained some minor flaws in the card pool. I am now pleased to announce that, after extensive research and design, Cumly Cube has reached a final form. No card is too powerful. No card is too weak. Synergy is abundant. Both the draft and play experiences are dynamic, exciting, and new. There will be no more major updates to Cumly Cube 1.

120 cards have been removed, and 120 cards have been added. Here are the changes, provided with brief justifications:

REMOVED:

ARTIFACT

1. Everflowing Chalice: mana rocks should cost 3 or have a drawback
2. Glass of the Guildpact: too weak
3. Heraldic Banner: encouraged mono-colored decks
4. Illuminated Folio: too weak
5. Jayemdae Tome: too weak
6. Loreseeker's Stone: too weak
7. Mind Stone: mana rocks should cost 3 or have a drawback
8. Null Rod: too much of a hate card
9. Pithing Needle: too powerful with Urza's Saga
10. Pyromancer's Goggles: too narrow
11. Retrofitter Foundry: too powerful with Urza's Saga

CREATURE

1. Bomat Courier: too powerful against slow starts
2. Deathpact Angel: creates a Cleric token, not a supported creature type
3. Dimir Cutpurse: too powerful
4. Elves of Deep Shadow: too obvious of a choice as a cumly
5. Golos, Tireless Pilgrim: too powerful
6. Hostage Taker: too powerful
7. Kalamax, the Stormsire: too powerful
8. Loyal Retainers: too obvious of a choice as a cumly
9. Monastery Mentor: too powerful
10. Moonveil Dragon: pumping the team makes for anticlimactic endings
11. Murktide Regent: we’ve seen enough of this card already in other formats
12. Ornithopter of Paradise: too obvious of a choice as a cumly
13. Phantom Tiger: too weak
14. Risen Reef: too powerful
15. Shadrix Silverquill: creates Inkling tokens, not a supported creature type
16. Tatyova, Benthic Druid: too powerful
17. Thraben Inspector: we’ve seen enough of this card already in other formats
18. Toxrill, the Corrosive: creates Slug tokens, not a supported creature type

ENCHANTMENT

1. Alpha Authority: hexproof makes for less interesting games
2. Favorable Winds: too weak
3. Offspring's Revenge: too narrow
4. Pernicious Deed: too powerful of a board wipe
5. Rally the Ranks: too weak
6. Song of Freyalise: too typical a card for green

LAND (types are grouped together in this list)

1. Tolarian Academy: too powerful
2. Arid Mesa: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
3. Bloodstained Mire: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
4. Flooded Strand: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
5. Marsh Flats: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
6. Misty Rainforest: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
7. Polluted Delta: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
8. Scalding Tarn: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
9. Verdant Catacombs: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
10. Windswept Heath: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
11. Wooded Foothills: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
12. Badlands: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
13. Bayou: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
14. Plateau: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
15. Savannah: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
16. Scrubland: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
17. Taiga: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
18. Tropical Island: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
19. Tundra: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
20. Underground Sea: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
21. Volcanic Island: mana-fixing should not be so easy in Cumly Cube
22. Hissing Quagmire: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting
23. Lavaclaw Reaches: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting
24. Lumbering Falls: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting
25. Shambling Vent: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting
26. Needle Spires: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting
27. Raging Ravine: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting
28. Stirring Wildwood: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting
29. Wandering Fumarole: creature lands are too versatile and discourage disciplined drafting

INSTANT

1. Abnormal Endurance: too typical a card for black
2. Aerial Predation: too narrow
3. Alchemist's Gift: too weak
4. Arbor Armament: too weak
5. Autumn's Veil: too narrow
6. Betrayal of Flesh: too weak
7. Bladebrand: too typical a card for black
8. Brainstorm: we’ve seen enough of this card already in other formats
9. Cathartic Pyre: too much utility for an instant
10. Comet Storm: one-sided board wipes need to be focused on creature type
11. Consider: too typical a card for blue
12. Crippling Chill: too typical a card for blue
13. Crush: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
14. Dawn Charm: other cards in Cumly Cube fill this role better
15. Dive Down: hexproof makes for less interesting games
16. Divine Offering: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
17. Dragon's Fire: too typical a card for red
18. Electrify: too typical a card for red
19. Fell the Pheasant: too narrow
20. Gainsay: too narrow
21. Gut Shot: too weak
22. Heroic Intervention: other cards in Cumly Cube fill this role better
23. Hold the Line: too narrow
24. Into the Core: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
25. Lash of Thorns: too weak
26. Make Your Mark: too weak
27. Opt: too typical a card for blue
28. Overload: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
29. Pitfall Trap: too narrow
30. Repulse: too typical a card for blue
31. Scrap: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
32. Seedtime: too narrow
33. Shatter: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
34. Smash: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
35. Smashing Success: spot artifact removal is not to be part of Cumly Cube
36. Smite: too narrow
37. Turn to Frog: turns a creature into a Frog, not a supported creature type
38. Unsummon: other cards in Cumly Cube fill this role better

SORCERY

1. Blasphemous Act: too typical a card for red
2. Chart a Course: too much utility
3. Cleansing Wildfire: too much utility
4. Cultivate: too typical a card for green
5. Disentomb: too typical a card for black
6. From the Ashes: too narrow
7. Funeral Rites: too much utility
8. Gitaxian Probe: too typical a card for blue
9. Necromantic Summons: too typical a card for black
10. Nighthaze: other cards in Cumly Cube fill this role better
11. Persist: too typical a card for black
12. Pirate's Prize: too much utility
13. Ponder: too much utility
14. Reanimate: too typical a card for black
15. Recover: other cards in Cumly Cube fill this role better
16. Serum Visions: too typical a card for blue
17. Spitting Earth: too typical a card for red
18. Thoughtcast: too typical a card for blue

ADDED:

ARTIFACT

1. Coat of Arms: encourages building around creature types
2. Patchwork Banner: encourages building around creature types

CREATURE

1. Arahbo, the First Fang: supports the Avatar and Cat creature types
2. Avatar of the Resolute: supports the Avatar creature type
3. Autonomous Assembler: supports the Assembly-worker creature type
4. Bag End Porter: supports the Dwarf creature type
5. Breya, Etherium Shaper: supports the Human and Thopter creature types
6. Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider: supports the Human and Pirate creature types
7. Captivating Unicorn: supports the Unicorn creature type and supports enchantment decks
8. Centaur Battlemaster: supports the Centaur creature type and functions as a strong payoff for prowess decks
9. Chronicler of Heroes: supports the Centaur creature type
10. Conclave Cavalier: supports the Centaur and Elf creature types
11. Conclave Mentor: supports the Centaur creature type
12. Crosis, the Purger: supports the Dragon creature type
13. Fear of Exposure: supports the Nightmare creature type and supports enchantment decks
14. Ghostly Changeling: supports all creature synergy decks
15. Gimli of the Glittering Caves: supports the Dwarf creature type
16. Glissa Sunseeker: supports the Elf creature type
17. Graveshifter: supports all creature synergy decks
18. Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea: supports the Elf creature type
19. Haunt of the Dead Marshes: supports the Elf and Nightmare creature types
20. He Who Hungers: supports the Spirit creature type
21. Heedless One: supports the Avatar and Elf creature types
22. Jungle Creeper: supports the Elemental creature type
23. Jungle Delver: supports the Merfolk creature type
24. Kataki, War's Wage: supports the Spirit creature type and functions as artifact hate
25. Keiga, the Tide Star: supports the Dragon and Spirit creature types
26. Kiora's Follower: supports the Merfolk creature type
27. Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca: supports the Merfolk creature type
28. Lagonna-Band Trailblazer: supports the Centaur creature type
29. Marwyn, the Nurturer: supports the Elf creature type
30. Master Skald: supports the Dwarf creature type
31. Mine Layer: supports the Dwarf creature type
32. Neighborhood Guardian: supports the Unicorn creature type
33. Promised Kannushi: supports the Human and Spirit creature types
34. Realmwalker: supports all creature synergy decks
35. Reveka, Wizard Savant: supports the Dwarf creature type
36. Seraphic Steed: supports the Angel and Unicorn creature types
37. Soul of Zendikar: supports the Avatar and Beast creature types
38. Steadfast Unicorn: supports the Unicorn creature type
39. Stingmoggie: supports the Elemental creature type and functions as artifact hate
40. Sygg, River Cutthroat: supports the Merfolk creature type
41. Vineshaper Mystic: supports the Merfolk creature type
42. Wistful Selkie: supports the Merfolk creature type
43. Yargle and Multani: supports the Elemental and Spirit creature types
44. Zacama, Primal Calamity: supports the Dinosaur creature type

ENCHANTMENT

1. Aura of Silence: functions as artifact and enchantment hate
2. Aura ShardsGC: functions as artifact and enchantment hate
3. Blessed Sanctuary: supports the Unicorn creature type
4. Corrosion: functions as artifact hate
5. Embargo: interesting prison piece for stasis decks
6. Font of Fortunes: card advantage at a fair price for Cumly Cube
7. Gate to Phyrexia: functions as artifact hate and supports the niche but possible sacrifice deck
8. Impending Disaster: a useful piece for aggressive decks or niche graveyard decks
9. Shared Animosity: supports all creature synergy decks

LAND (types are grouped together in this list)

1. Drowned Catacomb: completing the full set of check lands
2. Glacial Fortress: completing the full set of check lands
3. Hinterland Harbor: completing the full set of check lands
4. Sulfur Falls: completing the full set of check lands
5. Cascade Bluffs: completing the full set of filter lands
6. Graven Cairns: completing the full set of filter lands
7. Mystic Gate: completing the full set of filter lands
8. Sunken Ruins: completing the full set of filter lands
9. Wooded Bastion: completing the full set of filter lands
10. Darkwater Catacombs: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
11. Desolate Mire: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
12. Ferrous Lake: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
13. Fire-Lit Thicket: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
14. Flooded Grove: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
15. Overflowing Basin: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
16. Skycloud Expanse: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
17. Sunscorched Divide: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands
18. Viridescent Bog: completing the full set of Odyssey filter lands

INSTANT

1. Accelerate: supports prowess decks
2. And They Shall Know No Fear: supports all creature synergy decks
3. Artifact Mutation: functions as artifact hate and supports the Saproling creature type
4. Bandage: supports prowess decks and is also funny
5. Brokers Charm: charms are an important part of Cumly Cube
6. Charge Through: supports prowess decks
7. Cremate: supports prowess decks
8. Mirrodin Avenged: supports prowess decks
9. Poison the Blade: supports prowess decks and offers deathtouch in green instead of its typical color, black
10. Pressure Point: supportsli prowess decks and offers tapping in white instead of its typical color, blue
11. Steady Progress: supports prowess decks as well as slower proliferate decks
12. Sugar Rush: supports prowess decks and offers power boost in black instead of its typical color, red
13. Treacherous Greed: supports the niche but possible sacrifice deck
14. Turf Wound: a strange tempo card that fits the ethos of Cumly Cube
15. Warriors' Lesson: supports prowess decks and might end up as green Ancestral Recall

SORCERY

1. Altar of Bone: supports the niche but possible sacrifice deck
2. Aphetto Dredging: supports all creature synergy decks
3. Apocalypse: total game resets are an important part of Cumly Cube, because you end up playing more Cumly Cube!
4. Ashen Powder: a more situational and odd piece for reanimator decks
5. Blood for Bones: a more situational and odd piece for reanimator decks
6. Breath of Life: offers reanimation in white instead of its typical color, black
7. Broken Bond: functions as artifact and enchantment hate yet also ramps
8. Channel the Suns: a strange yet useful mana-fixer. Out with fetch lands, in with sorcery WUBRG!
9. Cloak of Feathers: supports prowess decks
10. Crippling Fear: supports all creature synergy decks
11. False Dawn: supports prowess decks and might offer mana-fixing in niche situations? Even if this card is pretty useless, it screams Cumly Cube
12. Grim Tutor: tutoring is a small part of Cumly Cube but very important in the right decks
13. Growth Spasm: offers ramp, mana-fixing, and supports the Eldrazi creature type
14. Hymn of Rebirth: offers reanimation in green and white instead of its typical color, black
15. Ice Storm: land destruction is a small part of Cumly Cube but a necessary balance, and not usually in green
16. Jace's Triumph: there are Jace planeswalkers in Cumly Cube
17. Mana Vapors: a strange tempo card that fits the ethos of Cumly Cube
18. Many Partings: offers mana-fixing and food
19. Migratory Route: offers mana-fixing and supports the Bird creature type
20. Obzedat's Aid: offers reanimation in black and white
21. Ordered Migration: supports the Bird creature type
22. Raise the Palisade: supports all creature synergy decks
23. Resourceful Return: a more situational and odd piece for black graveyard decks and artifact decks
24. Ribbons of Night: offers direct damage in black instead of its typical color, red
25. Rise of the Witch-king: a more situational and odd piece for reanimator decks
26. Riveteers Confluence: similar to a charm
27. Safewright Quest: offers slight mana-fixing in green and white
28. Solve the Equation: tutoring is a small part of Cumly Cube but very important in the right decks
29. Sweep the Skies: supports the Thopter creature type
30. Temporal Machinations: supports artifact decks
31. Unnatural Restoration: supports proliferate decks
32. Urborg Repossession: a more situational and odd piece for black graveyard decks

NV_1980 on The Feywild Hunt

6 months ago

I'd probably cut Thoughtcast for Crucible of Fire. The deck's draw potential is already very high and Cast isn't that great from the mid-game onwards, when it will be vastly outperformed by most other draw-resources in here anyways.

shock7123 on Artifact Aggro on a $50 Budget

9 months ago

Out of curiosity, when you say hyper budget, how budget are we talking? Is there a monetary limit you're trying to stay under?

For starters, your mana ramp and card draw is incredibly limited. Especially for an aggro strategy, running out of cards in hand and mana to use is especially detrimental. You have some card selection with Akal Pakal, First Among Equals, but that can be a slow process when you're not flashing out artifacts on each turn. Some cards I might recommend:

Thought Monitor and Thoughtcast - cheat these out with affinity for easy one-time value. Prices are around $0.50 and $1.00, respectively.

Mask of Memory - equip onto a flyer or other evasive creature for consistent looting. ~$0.31

Hedron Archive - 6 mana over a couple of turns to be able to draw 2 isn't bad. ~$0.12

Aether Syphon - If you have the extra mana to pay into this, 2 mana to draw an extra card per turn is decent. ~$0.08

Transplant Theorist - loot whenever you play an artifact, plus get the ability to tuck cards back into your library to theoretically be able to replay later. ~$0.06

Coveted Jewel - 6 mana draw 3, then add 3 mana back. If you get attacked and don't have the ability to block one, sure, that opponent gets control of the jewel. However, it tends to start a minigame where people will just attack the Coveted Jewel's controller rather than you. ~$0.18

kamarupa on Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels! (Squirrel Prison)

10 months ago

Fun stuff! I have some thoughts. I hope you find something useful, but no worries if you don't!

White is really where it's at with enchantments and the graveyard, namely Hall of Heliod's Generosity. I'd imagine if that were the only thing you needed white mana for, you could probably pretty often get by with a Birds of Paradise and maybe something like a Fertile Ground or Prismatic Omen. However, there are some other nice white spells that might prove just as helpful to you - Sacred Ground and Terra Eternal.

I don't play competitive MTG, but it's my understanding that in fast formats like Modern, you don't really need or even want repeatable/permanent solutions to threats your opponents might have. What we want are fast, efficient, and broadly applicable answers that buy us just enough time to gain enough advantage to win. So my advice - and do take this as a humble suggestion and not any sort criticism - is to forget the artifact defenses (and enchantments I mention above) and focus on having the mana available to cast your counterspells and/or add some low MV protection spells like Tamiyo's Safekeeping or Heroic Intervention and also a Fog/Holy Day or two.

I'd also say that while Drift of Phantasms is decent, I've come to prefer card advantage over tutors. It always seems like it too much to spend 3MV on a cantrip tutor that also reveals your threat. If you wait until you have enough mana to tutor a card, cast it, and have the mana to protect it for two turns, you're already looking at something like T10 without a synergized ramp in place. And that's probably just too slow for [competitive] modern. So, personally, and again, I'm not interested in competitive play, so feel free to ignore me, but I prefer spells like Harmonize for the card advantage and broader range of impact in getting me what I need, even if it is more of a gamble than a tutor. If you keep the artifact defense, you might consider Thoughtcast.

As much as I like what you're trying to do, I'd want an extra land or two, even with the Birds of Paradise. As little as I like it, I've come to believe 22+ lands is usually worth it, especially in a deck that's counting on casting multiple 3MV spells for their win-con.

I like a lot of things about Verdant Command, but I haven't found it useful enough in my little playgroup to warrant a full set in a mainboard.

My final piece of advice is to use the 'Copy Deck' feature here to make forks of this to try out things I suggested (and other ideas you might have). I find it so useful to have multiple builds of the same deck to playtest and compare what's really helping, what isn't, what's fun, what's slow, etc.

capwner on Molten Opals

11 months ago

I did a bit of mulligan testing between 64 and 61 card versions of this deck. I found the 64 card version with 4 Ghost Quarter / 4 Mishra's Bauble / 4 Thoughtcast performs slightly more consistently in terms of the likelihood of getting a functional opening hand. The results from 100 simulated game 1 openers show this:

64 card: Keep 7 x78 / Keep 6 x15 / Keep 5 x6 / Keep <5 x1

61 card: Keep 7 x69 / Keep 6 x27 / Keep 5 x4 / Keep <5 x0

This is a subtle difference but it suggests the increased number of GQ and Mishra's helps to smooth out manafixing issues in opening hands. My subjective assessment was also that the 64 card version had higher quality openers on the whole. For this reason I have updated the list to reflect this change, and I also added a 1-of Urza, Lord High Artificer because he seems cool.

capwner on Molten Opals

11 months ago

Hello Xica! I very much appreciate you taking the time to look at the deck and leave your thoughts. Let me see if I can address some of your points and explain why I made the choices I did.

1. Field of Ruin and Demolition Field I agree with you these are great denial cards that can fit in many decks, and are especially good when you can combine with Leonin Arbiter and additional cleansing effects like White Orchid Phantom or Geomancer's Gambit. This is generally how I've seen LD built in modern the past couple years and, frankly, I've found this build to underperform. There are a couple reasons that Fields do not fit in this shell, the main one is they are slow colorfixing (2 cost) vs. Ghost Quarter which, combined with any darksteel land, provides immediate colorfixing. This is really important for the deck as a big part of our plan is sticking the turn 2 tempo play of Boom or Cleansing Wildfire (on myself). Opening Darksteel Citadel + Demo Field is just not what we want to see. These are also SOFT land destruction which use up an entire turn of play in the early game, and don't even tempo the opponent. That plus a tight manabase with limited slots for basics is why I don't run these.

2. Experimental Synthesizer This is a solid engine card and you often see it paired with Gleeful Demolition and similar effects. I've built with this card and Ichor Wellspring in previous versions of the deck. The main reason I avoid these here is simple, Thoughtcast is better card advantage and I don't need artifact fodder because the darksteel lands reliably turn on Gleeful already. The fact that you can only play the exiled card on the current turn when we run so many high-cost bombs we may need ALL of our mana to cast, is sub-optimal.

3. Rise and Shine Alright, so I never said I didn't like this card. I've actually been really close to trying to fit it in here, as a 1-of probably. I just think Kappa Cannoneer is better in the slot. As a 2 mana play, it doesn't fit well in my curve where I want to cast boom on turn 2, drop an opal, then do mycospawn/charmaw/saga turns 3-4-5. The reason this deck works is because it chains that early tempo into this creature-based hard land destruction or saga beatdown almost immediately, keeping the opponent on the back foot for the entire game. 4/4 indest body for 2 is very good, but it just doesn't work with my gameplan as well as the other cards I have chosen because it has no tempo value. Our first priority is to disable the opponent, after which we have much more time to worry about the beatdown plan.

I hope that gives you bit better understanding of the deck! Like I said in the description, I've spent quite a bit of time and effort to develop this and I'm pretty confident I'm running about the best cards I can. Mostly I just want to try and fit a 4th Ghost Quarter, Mishra's Bauble, or Thoughtcast, if I were to change anything at this point. I think I'm probably doing something right here because my testing record is currently an absolutely insane 33 match wins to 8 losses.

Thanks again for your feedback, I'd be happy to check out your list and share my thoughts a bit later when I have some more time!

wallisface on Should I Put Additional Artifact …

1 year ago

As an example, this list costs well-under half of the money of your current list, but will significantly outperform it by prettymuch every metric:

• 4x Ornithopter
• 3x Signal Pest
• 3x Vault Skirge
• 4x Frogmite
• 4x Sojourner's Companion
• 2x Myr Enforcer
• 4x Thought Monitor
• 4x Welding Jar
• 4x Sol Ring
• 4x Springleaf Drum
• 4x Cranial Plating
• 4x Thoughtcast
• 4x Seat of the Synod
• 4x Darksteel Citadel
• 8x Island

jethstriker on Should I Put Additional Artifact …

1 year ago

I agree, get rid of the tapped lands. I also recommend playing Thoughtcast in this deck. With the amount of artifacts you have, you can almost always reliably cast it for one mana.