Training Grounds
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Training Grounds

Enchantment

Activated abilities of creatures you control cost up to less to activate. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.

KongMing on Grixis Spellslinger

18 hours ago

By the way, it is an expensive card, but Training Grounds would make an excellent addition to this deck. It would allow you to go infinite with cards like my other recommendations as long as you have a sac trigger. (Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar also close combo loops for you.)

Coward_Token on Commander Masters Previews and Speculation

2 weeks ago

This is a pretty good reference (I was surprised that among good reprintable cards, Capture of Jingzhou was the most expensive.)

Some neat cards that have seen little to no reprints for a long while:

I expect the various Sliver legends to make a reaprearance. Also, Mana Crypt could stand to be a less of a luxury.

DrukenReaps on top cards of each color

3 weeks ago

- Luminous Broodmoth and Darksteel Mutation

- Training Grounds and Galecaster Colossus

- Tree of Perdition and Buried Alive

- Shenanigans and Anger

- Devoted Druid and Eternal Witness

Mostly just went with cards I've used often across multiple decks. Not necessarily my hands down favorites in each color but clearly cards I enjoy enough to use more than most cards.

Abaques on Alternative themes/gimmick EDH deck ideas

2 months ago

There are a ton of interesting combinations to be had with the backgrounds from Battle for Baldur's Gate. Only a relative handful of the combinations have lots of decks so there is room to really explore and create something that is you. All the commanders are really cheap too.

I have two decks with backgrounds, both are not something I've seen anywhere else.

One of my favorite decks to play is my Wilson, Refined Grizzly and Shameless Charlatan deck, Tinker Tailor Soldier Bear where the theme is Wilson is a spy. I put a lot of +1/+1 and ability counters on Wilson and have him copy the best thing on the board. There were a couple of cards that were kind of pricey in the deck list, but only two (Training Grounds and The Ozolith) are really vital to the deck and even then I could cut those if I had to. The ability that Shameless Charlatan gives to Wilson kind of ends up being a combat trick, which is really kind of fun because you don't tend to see a lot of combat tricks in EDH.

The other deck with backgrounds is one that I just built with Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant and Guild Artisan. It's a boros treasure deck that uses the treasures from Guild Artisans to trigger Lulu's ability to untap and add a +1/+1 counter to tapped creatures. Aside from the treasure focused cards, I've filled the deck with cards that have a tap ability or are evasive attackers. I just built it last weekend and I'm hoping to try it out next week at the weekly commander night at my LGS, so I don't know how well it plays yet, but I'm optimistic. I kind of expect that I'll need to tweak it somewhat, but I think I'll need to play it a few times to know how. Happy to get any advice anyone would have as well (Prosperous Pachyderm).

Local_Hethen on Drafna EDH

2 months ago

Looks like a good start. Here some of my thoughts after a quick glance.

Remove Arcane Signet, it's mono-color. I know, you're thinking more mana with the Unwinding Clock, but if that's the case go with Sol Talisman, Dreamstone Hedron, Thran Dynamo, or Hedron Archive.

Remove the 5 CMC counters and go with the simple Counterspell or Cancel instead. You might be waiting for niche moments with the current counters.

I don't see much use for Training Grounds with the creatures you're running, or at least enough to warrant it.

Can't wait to see what you decide to do!

Tur on Hidden Power - Mono-Color - …

2 months ago

Hello everyone! This will be a forum post for a "Commander - Hidden Power" series. My goal is to show relatively inexpensive cards which are often overlooked by commander players in semi-competitive and casual play. (This post is not designed for competitive play.) If you enjoy the topic, please upvote the post or provide positive feedback and I will consider creating similar posts.

The powerful cards I plan on discussing are mono-color cards which are strong with big mana in commander.

I will provide one card per mono-color identity. These cards will not include x-spells nor multi-color identity spells. (I.e. no Torment of Hailfire nor Zacama, Primal Calamity)

It is obvious that big mana is a huge part of semi-competitive play. Whether it is from ramping through creatures, artifacts, enchantments, instants, sorceries, or lands. Big mana is pretty fun. Mana doubling effects from lands are especially useful. In this article, I'll be focusing on mana doubling from lands, but other ways to generate big mana are always possible

Here are some common big mana effects for each mono-color identity:

This is not an all inclusive list as Mana Flare, Heartbeat of Spring, Keeper of Progenitus, Sword of Feast and Famine, et cetera would work just as well. In each mono-color identity the artifacts Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power, and Extraplanar Lens can be used, however the black and green color identities have an advantage for mono-color double mana effects. Furthermore, green contains cards such as Seedborn Muse, Awakening, and Wilderness Reclamation which allow for more interactions.

Well, let us begin in WUBRG order!

White: Sacred Mesa

This card is relatively unused. According to EDHREC, Sacred Mesa is played in 1511/849227 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. You'd be surpized how powerful this card is with double mana. Imagine making some number of pegasus at instant speed as either blockers or attackers for your next turn. (The upkeep cost can be paid by making a summoning sick pegasus during your turn.) Not to mention power and toughness buffing effects are ideal with Sacred Mesa, examples include Dictate of Heliod, Cathars' Crusade, Caged Sun, or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.

It is often compared to Luminarch Ascension because they have similar effects. Yes, it makes a 4/4 angel instead of a 1/1 pegasus.

However, Luminarch Ascension has many downsides:

  • You have to have four quest counters to use the ability. (That is, you have to not lose life during an opponents turn four times.) This creates a huge target on your life total and you'll see it surely chip away.
  • Bounce effects, such as Cyclonic Rift really mess it up. Welcome back to square one!
  • Common cards, such as Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider prevent quest counters from even occurring. Vampire Hexmage or Hex Parasite are also options to remove the counters.

Sacred Mesa is way more versatile and does not have such downsides. Not to mention is it only three mana, ideal for Sun Titan recursion.

Blue: Compulsion

It is very rare to see this wonderful card. According to EDHREC, Compulsion is played in 1000/945324 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. Having an activated draw ability with very little downside on a blue enchantment is insane. Ideal when paired with Teferi's Ageless Insight or Thought Reflection. There are a few cards which have a similar effect, such as Triskaidekaphile or Kefnet the Mindful without having to discard a card, but having a two mana activation is much more versatile. I suppose that an argument could be made with Training Grounds, but that is too much just to make the Kefnet the Mindful ability more cost effective. Furthermore, discarding a specific card like Echo of Eons, Wonder, or a shuffle Eldrazi such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth has some nice synergy. (In fact, it should be played in most bant enchantress decks, such as the commander Tuvasa the Sunlit. Replenish for life!)

Black: Chainer, Dementia Master

This is a wonderful card, but a little pricey compared to the previous two cards. According to EDHREC, Chainer, Dementia Master is played in 6344/983251 (1%) decklists and is approximately ten dollars. Yes, we all know that you can abuse Chainer, Dementia Master with Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star with sacrifice outlets such as Phyrexian Altar. Suppose we don't want to abuse this card into the ground is it still just good card? Yes. We can fill up or graveyard with Buried Alive or Entomb and get back a creature card, or we can grab a creature card from an opponents graveyard. It can also be used to interrupt graveyard combos, such as Aristocrats by using the ability on an opponents Butcher Ghoul with the undying trigger on the stack.

Red: Scourge of Kher Ridges

An extremely powerful and undervalued card. According to EDHREC, Scourge of Kher Ridges is played in 1005/912333 (0%) decklists and is under three dollars. If you're able to untap with Sourge of Kher Ridges and double mana, your opponents are going to have a rough time. As you can put multiple activations on the stack, it provides you with a very high on-board presence. Even within a response to removal. I've heard players complain that Scourge of Kher Ridges dies too quick to removal and my answer is "from your opponents perspective it needs to die before you're able to untap". Ideal with lifelink (and deathtouch) equipment such as Basilisk Collar or Shadowspear.

Green: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

Typically unseen in play. According to EDHREC, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is played in 4786/880991 (1%) decklists and is approximately five dollars. It is odd how unused Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is compared to Ezuri, Renegade Leader when they basically have the same effect. Overrun as an activated ability which is stackable multiple times. I agree that Ezuri, Renegade Leader is better in elf tribal decks, however Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is great in most big mana decks. Ideal for wide aggro. Tall aggro will gain the benefit of trample. If you don't have extra creatures you can animate your lands as 1/1 attackers, correction 7/7 attackers. (Pretty interesting because these attackers get around Cyclonic Rift, they're lands.) You can also get some payback by animating your opponents lands in response to a creature board wipe. (From that reasoning it can be paired with cards such as Ascendant Evincar and Crovax, Ascendant Hero to destroy opponents lands through animation.)

All in all, these are relatively unused cards which have a lot hidden power with big mana. If your deck is mono-colored and designed for big mana spells or abilities, think about giving these cards a chance. See if they work well for you and your playgroup.

mrwilson6488 on Ever Adaptive Artifacts

4 months ago

thefiresoflurve

No worries at all! I’m terrible at the game sometimes too, which is why I turn to you guys for help! :)

So after generating infinite mana with Pili-Pala and Grand Architect one can then summon and sacrifice Breya and one of her thopters infinitely to either deal infinite damage, -4/-4 to creatures or gain 5 life infinitely.

I think Phyrexian Altar could be great if an only if I include Training Grounds so I can pull off the combos. I thought about Training Grounds and decided not to include it since it can’t reduce the costs to less than one; therefore only affecting Breya and reducing the cost by 1. Do you think it’s worth it to include Phyrexian Altar given that the combo can’t go off without Training Grounds? I suppose at worst, it’s still a great way to get mana out of thopters to get through the deck.

Lastly, when I have the time, I’ll try to turn this page into a Primer with instructions and possible combos to make it easier for others to follow and provide suggestions.

mrwilson6488 on Ever Adaptive Artifacts

5 months ago

thefiresoflurve

This is extremely helpful information! Thank you!!

I will definitely implement your ideas on subbing Astral Cornucopia and Empowered Autogenerator for signets and talismans.

I felt like Wishclaw Talisman was a pretty viable choice to tutor in hand for 3 mana, and with the recursion I have, be able to recycle it after sacrificing it (before handing it to an opponent), but I will have to playtest for awhile and see.

Platinum Angel and Spine of Ish Sah are definitely expensive, but I like cheating them into play so I rarely cast them. Given your experience, I'm sure you're right that it would help streamline the deck by removing them for better ramp cards.

I LOVE your suggestion of Reconnaissance Mission, and I'll have to scoop that ASAP. Thankfully, I have a playset of Training Grounds so I'll get one of those into this deck too.

Thank you again for your help!

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