Training Grounds

Enchantment

Activated abilities of creatures you control cost up to less to activate. This effect can't be reduced to less than one mana.

Discussion (47)

1empyrean on Bant Flashblade

1 week ago

One of my early EDH decks was Jenara, Asura of War and I had the deck be mostly control with ramp and force multipliers to speed things along.

I love combo, but this deck makes me nostalgic for that deck.

I'd like to see more uses for Training Grounds , as it currently only interacts with Stoneforge Mystic and Thrasios, Triton Hero .

king-saproling on Gretchen Titchwillow; Druid of Land Bouncing

1 week ago

Lotus Cobra , Tireless Provisioner , and Stone-Seeder Hierophant seem like they'd be very good here.

You might like these too: Illusionist's Bracers , Training Grounds , Biomancer's Familiar , Azusa, Lost but Seeking , Exploration , Burgeoning , Sakura-Tribe Scout , Skyshroud Ranger , Walking Atlas , Budoka Gardener  ^Flip, Llanowar Scout , Summer Bloom , Trench Behemoth

multimedia on Hercules23

2 weeks ago

Hey, I tried to post a comment at MoxField, but it didn't work because I think the comment was too long. I kind of have a problem with long comments :)

Instead I'll post the comment about your Scarab deck here.

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Nice updated version of Scarab. To answer your question because you have Phyrexian you could cut Ashnods. Although, I don't think I would since Ashnods is better than a few cards here because it's a combo piece and the ramp can help to pay for Scarab's embalm. Dementia being a win condition for opponent mill or repeatable opponent mill throughout the game is nice, but it's dangerous as self-mill enabler because you risk milling nonZombie combo pieces which you currently can't reanimate or recur. Honestly, I would play all three of the combo artifact sac outlets because of so much self-mill you don't have control of.

Because of self-mill Academy Ruins would be worth including to recur Phyrexian or save Phyrexian when in graveyard from being exiled. Since it's a land it doesn't take a valuable deck spot for this effect. One of the main reasons to play Phyrexian Reclamation is it can save creatures especially Gravecrawler and Wonder at instant speed from being exiled by graveyard hate which can be a big problem. Mystic Sanctuary is helpful since it's an Island for Wonder and as a bonus it can potentially recur an instant or sorcery which is good with self-mill.

• Ashnod's Altar --> Necromantic Selection
• Academy Ruins --> Temple of the False God
• Phyrexian Reclamation --> Training Grounds
• Mystic Sanctuary --> 1x Island

Temple of the False God is not a good land here because without Urborg it's unable to tap for mana until your turn five or six and that's if you make all your land drops. Necromantic Selection is a high CMC card that you don't really need because you have Kindred Dominance which is the same mana cost, but more powerful board wipe effect especially with Zombie tokens.

Training Grounds can be a powerful card for combos, but it's not doing that here therefore it doesn't do enough only affecting three creatures: Scarab, Cryptbreaker, Accursed. I don't think it's worth taking a deck spot for Grounds just to reduce the cost of Scarab or be able to reduced cost of activated abilities of opponent's creature you may embalm. Ashnods mimics what Grounds does by sacing a creature you make two colorless which can be used to help to pay, better yet to cast or activate anything else.

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By increasing your budget then you could add other black tutors and more tutors are very helpful when you want an artifact to combo. Diabolic Intent and/or Profane Tutor are two more two drop tutors to consider adding. Consider more tutors that can get Wonder or Gravecrawler such as Entomb or Unmarked Grave ?

• Diabolic Intent or Profane Tutor --> Fact or Fiction
• Entomb or Unmarked Grave --> Go for the Throat

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Shambling Ghast is a new one drop Zombie for combo with Rooftop + Havengul because when it dies it creates a treasure. With any sac outlet such as more convenient Carrion Feeder Ghast mimics Phyrexian Altar . With Rooftop, Feeder + Ghast can replace Phyrexian and being able to remove one nonZombie combo piece from the combo with Havengul is a huge upgrade. Ghast + Phyrexian combos with Havengul without needing Rooftop for infinite casts/dies/leave graveyard of Ghast which can make Havengul combo faster not needing six drop Rooftop.

• Shambling Ghast --> Solemn Simulacrum

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Acererak the Archlich is another new Zombie for combo with Rooftop since you don't have to enter Tomb of Annihilation dungeon instead you can enter one of the other two dungeons which results in bouncing Acererak back to your hand to cast again for free and repeat. Instead of venturing into Annihilation you can enter one of the other two dungeons and go to their rooms for value as many times equal to cards you have in your library. Lost Mine of Phandelver has Dark Pool room which as long as you have more cards in your library than each opponent has life can be a true win condition.

The way the Dungeons work is once you have completed one you can then right away venture back into that same dungeon again which lets you repeatedly enter Phandelver and it's rooms. In this combo with Phandelver each card in your library equals in order: 1 scry, 1 treasure, gain 1 life and each opponent loses 1 life, draw a card, that's powerful. Storeroom room instead of Dark Pool room can make Scarab huge for a big Commander damage attack.

Acererak the Archlich --> Loyal Subordinate

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Pair Gravecrawler with a sac outlet such as Feeder and it's ability to leave your graveyard with Tormod, the Desecrator for another repeatable Zombie token source to create a 2/2 Zombie for one black mana as many times as black mana you have to really fuel Scarab's upkeep trigger. This combo makes infinite tapped 2/2 Zombies with Phyrexian + Gravecrawler that forces an opponent to wrath the board or you win at your next upkeep. Tormod also triggers when you embalm your own creatures with Scarab.

• Tormod, the Desecrator --> Overseer of the Damned

Zombie Master is a Zombie evasion source, pair it with Urborg. Wonder will be a target for graveyard hate when it's in your graveyard therefore having other evasion sources especially from a Zombie is helpful.

• Zombie Master --> Liliana's Mastery

lagotripha on Simic Counters

1 month ago

Cool, so creatures with abilities, +1 +1 counters, midrange, and not pushing it into silly competitive. I'd look at building a strong 'spine' to the deck that draws cards and plays lands, probably around 12 cards + lands, then running a lot of 1-ofs to fill the other slots. It keeps things feeling fresh in more casual lists.

Coiling oracle and growth spiral offer an incredible start to that spine, with some 1-ofs to fill it out, say a Eureka Moment , a Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy and a couple of Explore . Gyre Sage and Incubation Druid offers an alternative 'ramp/combo' spine with untaps going infinite, if that is your thing.

Biomancer's Familiar offers a Training Grounds type effect that plays nice with adapt effects. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood or Vastwood Fortification  ^Flip can help getting counters on creatures that like them but don't get them normally. This can also play very nicely with Master Biomancer and Fertilid type effects.

In terms of creatures there are a lot that have really cool abilities that never quite made it to competitive. I'd look up the graft/evolve/adapt keywords to start, followed by simic standard decks older than a couple years to see if there is any stuff you love, then stuff that cares about counters - Animation Module , Simic Ascendancy , but more importantly creature types like ooze (and stuff like Ooze Flux ). There are a lot of janky crabs and fish that deserve to see play but never made the cut because of the format's focus on 1 drops, and so long as you keep an eye on the overall curve you should be able to use most of them.

SueMe on VARINA'S DEATH WALTZ - Zombie Combo [cEDH Primer]

1 month ago

Hi there, cool deck!

I'm afraid Training Grounds only reduces the cost of Varina's activation by 1.

Schauzeit on Inniaz Hatebirds

1 month ago

king-saproling, thank you for your suggestions :) Training Grounds would be awesome indeed, but I can't afford that card. I have a hard time evaluating Hope of Ghirapur , but maybe it would be a good idea to add Sevinne's Reclamation then, as I have a couple of cards that sacrifice themselves. I din't have Esior, Wardwing Familiar on my radar as a cheap flyer with an alright effect, so thank you.

king-saproling on Inniaz Hatebirds

1 month ago

You might like these: Training Grounds , Hope of Ghirapur , Stormscape Familiar , Sunscape Familiar , Esior, Wardwing Familiar , Gravitational Shift , Pride of the Clouds , Empyrean Eagle , Alabaster Leech , Sapphire Leech , Geist-Fueled Scarecrow

OctaviusFalcon on Mairsil's Got an App for That

1 month ago

Zallce I'll be honest, I dismantled the deck a few years ago and probably don't have enough experience with it to give a ton of advice. Looking at the deck, I guess I would agree that Training Grounds isn't necessary, because a lot of my cards don't have very expensive abilities. As for the +1/+1 counter stuff, that's mostly to be used with Sage of Hours to take a bunch of turns. I also never really ended up exiling him a lot, because once you get the Quicksilver Elemental loop online, you have functionally infinite uses of his abilities and don't need to reset him. Hope you have fun playing it!