Tooth and Nail

Sorcery

Choose one --- Search your library for up to two creature cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle your library; or put up to two creature cards from your hand into play.

Entwine (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)

Discussion (51)

Tzefick on Defender of the Heart, revised

2 days ago

enpc I very much doubt a 5 CMC 2/2 trampler is going to connect on anything. I don't think that's good balance. At least a beefy 6/6 trampler has a chance to connect AND survive to see its trigger go off.

That being said, Defense of the Heart was a very strong card, and in eternal formats the fetch of two creatures to drop right on the board would often result in infinite combos. Legacy and Vintage are way faster formats than the DotH can keep up with, so it never really became much of a problem. However in multiplayer formats like Commander, the pace is generally slower (depending what pace the players have designed their decks for) and the Defense of the Heart is easier to trigger and will often end games on its own.

A creature variant is much easier to deal with in general, but I wont look forward to seeing a new variant of DotH, even if it does look more like an entwined Tooth and Nail. A creature is also way easier to cheat the mana cost on and to recur.

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If you were to make a more direct creature version of Defense of the Heart I would change the trigger to be about evening the odds more than the old trigger that just saw a group of creatures on an opponent's side and decided to respond by grabbing the two meanest creatures you have in your deck.

So instead of "At the beginning of the upkeep, if an opponent controls three or more creatures, sacrifice ~

It would be "At the beginning of the upkeep, if an opponent controls at least two more creatures than you, sacrifice ~

Seeing as the legs is itself a creature and you replace it with 2, I decreased the excess needed for the trigger to just 2. By having the condition be about being outnumbered, it feels more fair and earned to grab the two best creatures from your library and toss them on the board. It also makes it easier to actually play around - making the trigger less likely to go off and would more easily balance out the cost-to-effect.

Under the old Defense of the Heart I never understood why, if you have a large army and your opponent has 3 creatures, you get to find even more creatures. That trigger was never about evening the odds (which I think was the intended concept) but rather, "the opponent has multiple creatures, lets find some better creatures to beat their brains in."

It might even be a better concept if it counted total power among creatures your opponents control, compared to yours. That way, if an opponent went more Voltron on single creatures, the effect would still have a place, and not punish wheenie strategies (going wide) unnecessarily.

enpc on Defender of the Heart, revised

2 days ago

DemonDragonJ: Yes it does, very much so. Not to mention, all of those creatures have a persisent effect. The card you designed requires you to sacrifice the creature to get a one off (abelit very powerful) effect.

I kind of want to say 5 mana for a 2/2 with trample sounds like the right balance here. It's basically a tooth and nail if you can connect it, so making it small but cheap to cast would be the go.

But the problem is that you've changed the fundamental parameters. The whole point of Defense of the Heart was that you could play around it by not playing creatures. But this one here is designed so that to play around it, you have to play creatures of your own to hold up as blockers. Yes, I'm aware that reomval is a thing but it's the same for the OG card too, so I'm moving past that fact.

Personally I would say thath you should either try to stick to the card more closely or not try to make a creature version. But what you have here is more akin to Tooth and Nail than it is DotH.

enpc on Infinite Loops

2 days ago

My issue with that statement though is that "build(ing) a fun to play deck" is entirely subjective. As a primarily combo player, I enjoy playing combo as much as I enjoy building it. So my fun comes from tuning my combo deck.

I have seen many of these forum posts over many years and I think there seems to be a general theme here: people have a problem with well established combos, not combo specifically. If I'm playing a deck which is just designed to resolve Flash + Protean Hulk or Tooth and Nail, well, most people have played against these decks before. I do think in casual settings there is a bit of an onus on the combo player to try something new instead of just going back to the efficient combos. This however does not hold true for competitively geared decks.

I also think that there is a pretty crappy attitude when it comes to running removal in a lot of casual decks. Most people don't want to dedicated card slots to removal because "why would I run lots of removal when I could just run more big stompy creatures", however time and time again I see these decks fold to either higher synergy decks or to combo decks or just any deck that plays on more than just the board. I don't think you need to jam your deck full of removal, but I have seen far too many decks with far too little removal.

I also don't think the attitude of "that Johnny player just pulled the rug out from under us, especially after we spent all this time setting up" is an overly healthy one eiterh, because again I have seen people get tilted becuase they spent all this time setting up and a well timed Wrath of God completely undid all of their work.

alechodgin23 on Myr/Nephilim Tribal

3 days ago

Love this deck. Definitely a +1 from me. I love the idea and the uniqueness of it.

It seems like the stars of the show are the Nephilem. That being said, I'd recommend more creature tutors that can out them into play like Tooth and Nail, Green Sun's Zenith,Chord of Calling, Eldritch Evolution, Neoform, and Wild Pair.

I'd also add more card draw like Beast Whisperer, Kindred Discovery, Vanquisher's Banner, Ohran Frostfang, and Coastal Piracy.

Heck maybe even throw in cards like Kindred Charge and Kindred Summons.

All the kindred cards as well as the banner will help you multiply those Myr as well as gain value off of them before you can land a couple Nephilem!

enpc on anyone know good blink infinite ...

1 week ago

I'm guessing General Tazri is your commander. As smackjack pointed out, just play Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron / Peregrine Drake / Great Whale then bounce your commander, fetching and playing Kalastria Healer. Then bounce your commander some more.

Tooth and Nail is super good here too, lets you win on the spot.

rychu on BRGW Commander EDH

1 week ago

For myself and others, how to optimally pilot the deck

Philosophy behind the deck, ideally should be played with 2+ other players.

You are a hard to kill end game boss, blue is boring busted and broken and is also expensive. Try to go for cards that will keep your hand healthy since we are not running blue so think how much you can squeeze out of one card for maximum value.

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Also I don't know what to tell people if asked "What kind of deck are you running?"

Most important two card combos

If you are good on mana the first couple of two card instant win combos will both require Heliod, Sun-Crowned. Be sure to use the activated ability on the other combo piece by giving them lifelink Walking Ballista normally played from hand and normally will need to be cast for 4 colorless mana. Heliod, Sun-Crowned can also combo with Triskelion cost 6 colorless mana and can be cast straight from library or graveyard to play without dying unlike Walking Ballista.

Walking Ballista will want cards like Demonic Tutor , Congregation at Dawn better yet Shared Summons

while Triskelion will want cards like Defense of the Heart , Tooth and Nail with the added 2 colorless for entwine (if it's already in hand just pick a different creature and still summon the creatures you want in hand.)

Next important combo pieces

The next big combo piece requires Dockside Extortionist to get the mana engine running if low, if you are netting 4 or more treasure tokens you can go infinite with Eldrazi Displacer if the treasure tokens remain you can stop mostly all creatures as they hit battlefield or are entering combat for a lockdown by blinking the creatures in an early enough response.

A third piece combo to draw your deck with is Korvold, Fae-Cursed King sacrifice enough treasure tokens to draw your whole deck and play Revel in Riches and then Final Fortune.

Other three piece card combo include Oketra's Last Mercy , Felidar Sovereign into Final Fortune, lastly Wall of Blood , Near-Death Experience into Final Fortune.

Key solo pieces aka build around cards

Oath of Druids Best way to cheat in creatures, take advantage of Forbidden Orchard

Shifting Shadow will still work even if you are trying to destroy an indestructible creature during upkeep reveal the next creature while still keeping the previous one. Can be easily retrieved if no graveyard hate.

Sun Titan can even get a land into play

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord+Wall of Blood if you have higher health than all opponents.

Thespian's Stage or Mirage Mirror+Dark Depths 20/20 flying indestructible legendary token combos with Mayael's Aria , I ended up cutting Vampire Hexmage

Green Sun's Zenith ramp for a single forest zero cmc Dryad Arbor or get rid of a huge threat with Reclamation Sage

Crop Rotation into Glacial Chasm in critical moment before losing the game from combat damage. Exactly 31 life can buy up to 5 turns consecutively (2,4,6,8,10)

Elvish Reclaimer does the same thing, also get Riftstone Portal into graveyard as it helps against Blood Moon

Chromatic Lantern can negate damage lands and lands with downside and can make useless lands useful.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth+Cabal Coffers maximum ramp the reason to try to run less artifacts.

Birthing Pod you can sacrifice zero cmc token creatures for a one drop ect.

griffstick on Help with Long Game Voltron ...

2 weeks ago

I think you'll need a combo rather than one single card or 2. There is a bunch of game ending combos in blue and white and green. So unfortunately adding win conditions that are combos will hurt the overall strategy that rafiq wants.

Most of the combos in these colors are self mill upon making infinite mana. But there is one card and one card only that I can think of that can win you the game and that card is Tooth and Nail. But of course youllave to pick a 3 slots to remove for this 3 card combo to work. I am not good at these combos. I dont know that many. But there is alot of combos. So SynergyBuild if you wouldn't mind naming a few combos.

Wiggyman on Hot Chicks with Fat Dudes

2 weeks ago

Oh man, I didn't expect that to be a real edit you made. I think it'll work great! Now that you did it:

Easy replacements for Nature's Claim are Knight of Autumn and Reclamation Sage, so those might be a good include. Any replacement for Beast Within will obviously be much worse, but Meteor Golem and Mold Shambler are what I can think of off the top of my head. And I honestly can't think of anything to replace Natural Order or Tooth and Nail.

Other things: You're running 16 noncreature spells. Nikya of the Old Ways might limit you a bit, but I think it has enormous potential and might be worth a look.

I've also found that Captain Sisay is busted in this kind of deck if you have $15 that you're willing to spend.

I still love the deck!