Tinybones, Trinket Thief

Legendary Creature — Skeleton Rogue

At the beginning of each end step, if an opponent discarded a card this turn, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.

[[symbol:4]: Each opponent with no cards in hand loses 10 life.

Discussion (32)

StopShot on Commander Collection Black is hot …

1 month ago

If there was a single card that would have flipped the quality of this it would have been Imperial Seal. As for commanders, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Tinybones, Trinket Thief would have been nice value picks. Heck why not throw in a Dark Confidant or a Grave Pact?

zAzen7977 on Are there any Commanders you'd …

1 month ago

If I could, I would partner Tinybones, Trinket Thief with Tourach, Dread Cantor…but my friends would probably stop talking to me hehe

TotesMcGoats on Wizzardrix (Kwain, Itinerant Meddler)

1 month ago

VayraTheGatherer Hey, feel free! I posted the deck and primer for a reason! :D For Arcane Artisan, in my own personal experience playing Group Hug Decks, I'm not a huge fan of effects that let my opponents cheat things into play such as Braids, Conjurer Adept, Hypergenesis, or Tempting Wurm. When I used to play these sorts of cards in my Phelddagrif Group Hug deck, what happens is you usually just end up randomly Kingmaking whichever opponent happened to be playing the biggest scariest thing in the hand like an Eldrazi or something. Its never as symmetrical as it seems it should be, you know? That's why I like focusing on card draw for my Group Hugging, you still speed up the game by making sure people hit their land drops and ramp and have action to play, but they still have to put in the work to cast those cards, they don't just get to cheat them for free.

Dimensional Breach feels like an absolutely miserable card to play against, because this will hit every single permanent including lands. Tokens are just gone forever, and players are now forced to slowly get back 1 land or creature or whatever at a time to rebuild their boards. Its like starting the entire game over, and nobody is going to want to sit through that. A much better option I think would be Out of Time, which phases out only creatures as a sort of pseudo-board wipe for a number of turns but then safely returns them all back into play without removing tokens or retriggering any ETB, and most importantly, its ONLY creatures, so no need to replay absolutely everything. Its also why I prefer cards like AEtherize as opposed to Wrath of God because you can be a bit more precise with what to remove, and you're only temporarily bouncing it back to hand to be replayed later, rather than just removing it forever.

Having Hexproof for yourself is nice, but kind of unnecessary I think. Ideally no one should really be targeting you with very many spells since you're far from being the biggest threat at the table. Anything they DO target you with you should most likely have a counterspell for if its a big enough deal, or otherwise if its not actively about to kill you, let it slide. The great thing about Kwain is that we're playing him on Turn 2 every single game, and he should hopefully stick around the whole game, so when we're gaining a life every single turn our life total should be pretty stacked. If there's some sort of infinite damage combo or repeatable trigger that keeps threatening your life total, than that's what we have counterspells and removal for. I like to take a more reactive approach to things, rather than trying to construct an untouchable pillowfort. Its why I don't play Solitary Confinement or Island Sanctuary or Blazing Archon. And if you're worried about burn, cards like Aegis of the Gods or Teyo, the Shieldmage won't actually do much besides eat the first burn spell.

Spiritual Focus is... a weird card. I guess if you want to run it as a metagame decision if someone in your playgroup plays Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Tinybones, Trinket Thief or some other discard focused deck or a lot of wheels like Nekusar, the Mindrazer. But honestly, with the sheer amount of card draw that this deck will provide the entire table, discard decks are going to have a much harder time keeping up, and they're just going to have a bad time. You'll have enough cards in hand that you won't really care to ditch one or two.

As for Nekusar, the Mindrazer and other similar strategies looking to punish card draw... well that's sort of a sticky situation for us since all of our extra card draw is actively hurting everyone except the Nekusar player and helping them a LOT. This is the sort of matchup you really just want to discuss and avoid in Rule 0 conversations, because someone is going to have a miserable time, and its probably the Nekusar player as every single card they play in their deck is a threat that you simply can't allow to resolve to stick around on the board for more than a turn.

I hope this helps :)

Azeworai on The Pragmatist's Pet

3 months ago

As more cards are added to the game of Magic, each bearing the modern design philosophy that urge them to be relevant in near to all formats, there comes the time for a player to edit their decks.

I shall confess that I primarily dwell in the realm of Commander, but this is an argument that can be made for all methods of casting spellls. (Mostly Commander)

Within each set is a card that is fated to find a home in a specific archetype, yet this entails that another piece of the machine is removed. I have a mono-black discard deck built around Chainer , but they have since printed Tinybones , Tergrid  ^Flip, and Tourach . Each of these are more potent in the command zone, but Chainer is closer to my twisted heart and nocent at shackling my foes.

I have a Naya-lands list around Hazezon Tamar , but they have put forth into the world, Zacama and Obuun , but Hazezon offers nostalgia and tokens.

This especially pertains to the list below the commander, such as Murderous Rider over Hero's Downfall , Fierce Guardianship over Counterspell , Usher of the Fallen over Savannah Lions , and the list goes on for eternity. I enjoy adding asinine old artifacts to lists (see: Temporal Aperture and Phyrexian Portal ), yet felt as if I had no choice but to cut Moonring Mirror for Sevylun .

My query of this thread is when do players feel obliged to cut cards from lists despite any strong emotions towards maintaining their inclusion? When can the poignant piece of cardboard at last meet anguish? When does power eclipse pet?

Note: This is not a question of whether it is correct or not to snuff the asinine spell. Optimization is a separate topic than what is meant to be discussed here.

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 3: Mono-Black …

3 months ago

This was hard, extremely so: this was very nearly sixteen commanders. Black is well-suited to stand alone, and there are so, so many good choices that I’ve developed a newfound respect for anyone who tries to top ten black. This is almost my favorite color, and while it may be limited in dealing with anything not a creature, graveyard, or a card in hand, good GOD can it deal. All the tutors, all the kill spells, creatures of the night, what music… Sorry, it’s easy to go full Dracula in this area of the pie. In summary, I’ve a lot more to say on this subject than the colors we’ve already covered. However, as always in this project, the point is to celebrate three thematic elements, not drool over all the ludicrous power in this necrotic slice of the pie. Today we’re limiting ourselves to three pervading archetypes: life, death, and graveyard manipulation.

Life

White is a respectable powerhouse in this arena, but black takes center stage with undeniably better style. Whereas white just gains it, playing black means treating your life total as just one more resource to use, abuse, and exploit. Vampirism, folks, and not the glittery sort either. Cruel, properly thirsty vampirism, all about chugging opponents like cheap beer. And if you enjoy masochistic chicaneries that trade life for cards, removal, mana, and eventually victory, look no further.

This guy. This glorious, ludicrous guy. General damage? Check. Lifelink? Check. Game-warping mechanic? Great big ol’ hissing, honking, ball-biting check. A peak, high performance example of boom/bust gameplay. Just be sure to draw as many cards as you can and pray that you find quality lifegain to patch the holes you’ll be blowing in yourself.

Here’s the thing: in mono-black, whenever you gain life it’s at someone else’s expense. An effect that doubles said expense? Please and thank you. board wide Lifelink? Also yes. Throw down some grunts, swipe right, and watch your peanut gallery of jerks like the Blood Artist heckle opponents to death.

You know what’s a great defense, command damage notwithstanding? A huge life total. This is partly why red struggles in EDH: hard to beat down someone with piles of life and a few choice defensive options. In some ways it’s just as hard to vampire them to death. You know who doesn’t care? Erebos. Old Erebos is singularly unimpressed by new Heliod’s jank, and happy to sweeten the deal with reliable draw for a modest fee of mana and life.

Death

The past few years have seen respectable creature removal cropping up even in blue and green. White has oodles of fantastic board wipes, and red can hose everything down with direct damage. But compared to black, they’re all posers. Shrinking creatures, sacrifice and discard are all primarily black stables. Toxic Deluge laughs at your indestructible legions. Grave Pact is amused by your shroud, and will bury you in it. This is the color of Go for the Throat, Diabolic Edict, and Tragic Slip. When black comes for your minions, you better have a mountain of solutions, otherwise the only way to save said minions is to take them off the field yourself.

Spoiler alert: three of the Kamigawa ascendants are going to feature in these articles, and Kuon is the meanest (since the blue one got banned, anyway). I speak from gleefully shameless experience here. For the low, low price of three creatures and a modest downpayment of another every turn, black sacrifice stax can be yours. Add fun things like Magus of the Abyss, Dread Return, and Fleshbag Marauder and all his rude, rude cousins. Trust me on this: Kuon is, if you’ll pardon the pun, enchantingly nasty.

Very few things like boardwipes. However, provided they’ve had a snack first, Yahenni likes them just fine. An affordable commander with a sac outlet (indestructibility on a stick :D) who actively rewards slaughtering anything that could block? Sold! Throw in Fallen Ideal. You won’t be sorry.

In my last article I referred to blue as the heavyweight champion of yoink, but that’s not to say there aren’t other colors in the ring. Forcing opponents to sacrifice creatures and discard cards are both black staples, and boy howdy does Tergrid reward such misbehavior (though the adorable Tinybones, Trinket Thief may be more a discard fiend's speed). If tokens aren’t in the local meta, this will change that.

Graveyard Manipulation

Green shares a bit of this glory: there’s a pervasive theme in green of both exiling and returning cards to the hand from there. BUT… Black is still the unequivocal graveyard color, leaving the charge in both filling and emptying it, especially of creatures and onto the field. Bojuka Bog. Animate Dead. Living Death. Green may have some good tricks here, but few so dirty as an Entomb followed by Reanimate. So, so dirty. I saw it only once, but it was a turn two Terastodon. Once was enough.

Reanimator decks got you down? Here’s a bone, friends. Stealing your opponent’s guys is one thing. Exiling said guys when their owners wipe your stolen board is another. Chainer doesn’t like choices. Chainer likes it all. And Chainer, above all else, loves to break your opponent’s heads with their own toys.

Convinced I like Kamigawa yet? I used to play this janky beast in a standard spirit deck. These days, my thoughts run first to a big pile of Shadowborn Apostle and assorted demons, but that’s just the easy first on the list of tricksy things up Shirei’s sleeve. Again, Blood Artist and friends. Again, deeply unhappy opponents.

Here’s horror for you. Anyone who doesn’t admit to a healthy bout of nervousness when this guy hits the field is a liar (or playing Orbs of Warding). Coming or going, yours or theirs, killed or milled or discarded, if the graveyard is involved then the good syr gets his ping. Have yourself a time with any number of silly combos and tactics: your opponents are guaranteed a Tortured Existence.

And, for my personal favorite...

I ran Marrow-Gnawer for a time, but offloaded it when I realized that I was bored by the deck. A few years later I built Kuon, who quickly became infamous in my playgroup. However, aspects of the deck that I particularly enjoyed were better served when I switched to this villainous wench. With a decent draw effect (especially with Thornbite Staff) and an imminently breakable ping engine, Ayara is BRUTAL with proper support. Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder. Army of the Damned. And the game-winning monstrosity itself, Plague of Vermin. Revel in countless bodies to exploit as only black can and watch your opponents die of Ayara’s approval.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Red!

Prior Articles:

Mono-White

Mono-Blue

Prominence2Black on Disruptive Discard

3 months ago

Hey man, thanks for checking this out. I actually have Contamination on the way to Aus from the States and I think Bitterblossom would be a great inclusion, although pricey haha.

This deck as it's currently listed played a tad slow, and didn't quite provide answers to the questions that our playgroup's meta was asking. In saying that, with the right first hand draw being able to put Tinybones, Trinket Thief on the table with a discard engine like Bottomless Pit or Necrogen Mists by turn 2 provides a massive headstart in terms of card advantage as you're also removing opponent's cards increasing the card defecit.

The real value in the deck comes from the early oppressive plays like Oppression and painful quandry.

I'm reworking this as we speak so the updated list will be up soon. The creatures very seldom provided any real threat at the table and as such I am going to cull the number of inclusions. Your suggested Bitterblossom should balance this a little and will provide much needed chumps as aggressive plays from opponents with fliers whittle my life total down to a point where Ad Nauseam , Necropotence and Dark Confidant become pretty risky.

Guerric on Hatebears and the social contract

4 months ago

Generally the only things that universally violate the social contract are large quantities of mass land destruction and playing a cEDH deck in a non-cEDH pod. People will hate you for that. Most people aren't fan of "stax" effects either, such as Stasis and Winter Orb , since locking your lands down has a similar affect to MLD, albeit in the short term. People also generally hate mass discard strategies like Tinybones, Trinket Thief decks, because they want to at least have cards in their hands to play. People generally don't mind if you wipe their board, destroy their stuff, or play a strategic card that interferes with their gameplan (ex. playing Solemnity against a counters deck or Containment Priest against a Meren deck. That's just good play. People aren't also generally opposed to taxes or pillowfort strategies either- that's just a playstyle. Basically, if you reset an already long game by blowing up lands or keep people from doing anything at all on their turns as the main strategy of your deck, many players won't like it and will kill you early. People want to be able to play the game on their turns, and if they can't do much at all they'll be upset. If you just slow them down a little bit by taxing their attacks or shutting down particularly degenerate strategies, that's just fair play. As for things that depend on your table, that would be the gray category where infinite combos and Cyclonic Rift go.

In general, I think hatebears is fine in general if it doesn't devolve into stax, and the main things to avoid are mass land destruction and mass discard as major strategies for your deck.

MLS91 on Crippling Fear

6 months ago

Profet93

Back at it with a small tweak

- Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip for + Dance of the Dead

why: I feel confident with the amount of ramp and lands that i'm playing, Awakening is a little expensive regardless of the versitility. Dance lowers my curve, grants a small buff and haste. (also I still don't have access to Necromancy so the patience continues

cards i've been considering lately, perhaps better to "sideboard" the cut for them, I would like to discuss the viabilty of these cards I have in mind for tuning.

1. Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Why:

Varragoth has a good body at 2/3, Deathtouch and the ability to tutor (yes i'm also considering the opposing Opposition Agent ). I'm sure we all agree that "tutoring"is good. I feel like this deck, despite not having yet played it, needs access to it's gameplay quickly.

Political? It can accomplish that. It can be in play as soon as T1 ( Dark Ritual effects, Rocks) which only helps the then shaped draw into T3. I didn't at first realize this says "1(B): "...TARGET PLAYER..." ", however now I do. I think the card has potential, only cut I currently see is Metalworker ...feels bad, maybe Tinybones, Trinket Thief ???

1. Sadistic Sacrament

Why:

RIP combo players