Unquestioned Authority

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

When Unquestioned Authority enters the battlefield, draw a card.

Enchanted creature has protection from creatures. ((Remember the acronym debt.) This creature can't be damaged, enchanted, equipped, blocked or targeted by creatures.)

Discussion (51)

Ector on Galea, the Equipmonger

2 months ago

The Ramp, the Lands and Topdeck Manipulation

The major goal of every good Galea deck is the right method of ramp and topdeck manipulation. Every time you see a card that Galea cannot play, you should have a way to change the situation somehow. And there are two primary ways to achieve that:

1. Direct manipulation. Scroll Rack , Sylvan Library , Soldevi Excavations , Vantress Gargoyle and Jace, the Mind Sculptor directly manipulate with your topdeck, allowing you to gain card advantage. Let's look at Scroll Rack for example. If you have say three Auras/Enchantments in your hand that you can play this turn, and your topdeck isn't Aura or Equipment. You just draw three cards, put your Auras/Equipments on topdeck and play all them, actually drawing three cards for 1 mana!

2. Fetching lands. As long as Galea cannot play lands from top of your library, you should fetch lands as much as you can. This reduces the number of lands in your library (and the chance to see a land on your topdeck), and allows you to shuffle your library. We have six lands that fetch the other lands, and one of them ( Thawing Glaciers ) can fetch multiple times. We also have Sword of the Animist and Elvish Reclaimer that fetch lands repeatedly, and Expedition Map .

The Ramp strategy of this deck uses "the best of all worlds" principle: the best creatures, the best artifacts and the best Aura ( Wild Growth ). Most of the Ramp cards cost 1 mana, but there are few 0-cost and 2-cost cards. Why don't I use more Auras? Because creatures and artifacts are more efficient, and I need Ramp prior to playing Galea. Why do I use mana dorks? There are two reasons: I need early targets for my Equipment, and I want to sacrifice them later to Skullclamp .

This deck has three ways of fetching NON-basic lands: Elvish Reclaimer , Expedition Map and Tolaria West - and if you have Academy Ruins , you can recycle Expedition Map to fetch more lands. One of the best targets for the fetching is Urza's Saga , which can create a giant token and fetch Skullclamp or Expedition Map . Another very important target is Glacial Chasm , which can allow you to survive and grab victory even in a grave sutuation. Of course, Academy Ruins and Hall of Heliod's Generosity are also the popular fetch targets.

The Aura Selection

Most Auras in this deck steal or spoil enemy creatures (especially Commanders). It's hard to win when your Commander is stolen or converted to Insect :) There are only two Auras that should be played on your creatures: Mantle of the Ancients and Unquestioned Authority . Most of the time they are played via Sovereigns of Lost Alara : you attack, then fetch one of them from your deck, and, in case of the Mantle, also play all Equips from your graveyard.

The Hidden Gems

Conqueror's Flail prohibits opponents from playing spells during your turn. This allows you to play all your stuff without pesky counterspells and attack safely. It's very important for this deck.

Moonsilver Spear and Seraphic Greatsword create 4/4 flying Angels. If you have both, you can create enough blockers that can eventually kill somebody.

Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip should be transformed into a land that provides three mana of any color. It's a great Ramp, especially if you consider that Sword of Feast and Famine and Treachery untap your lands. With a bit of luck, you can even create two Construct tokens with Urza's Saga !

Fractal Harness is the easiest way of creating an enormous creature. It will grow very fast, and Belt of Giant Strength may give it +10/+10! If you get both in play, follow the "Trident Punch" path and look for Surestrike Trident .

Umbral Mantle doesn't have a lot of good targets in this deck: there are no creatures with powerful "Tap:" abilities. But you can steal them! :) Talking seriously, the Mantle is used to untap our Ultron after attacking. I am not a big fan of using Galea for this purpose: it's better not to put all the eggs into one basket. Plus, the Mantle makes a great combo with Surestrike Trident .

Shimmer Dragon is really great for this deck. It flies and almost always has Hexproof. It provides insane amount of cards. And it is much better material for Ultron than Galea IMHO. Most of the time you would need just one Scytheclaw or Kaldra Compleat on it to deal very serious damage.

Fierce Guardianship means that you always might have a counterspell :)

Thassa, God of the Sea is very helpful for two reasons: it can make your creature unblockable (even a tiny Elf with the Scytheclaw becomes a very dangerous threat!) and it provides a free Scry 1 every turn (see above on topdeck manipulation). Still, you have a chance of turning her into creature, since there are several permanents with UU in their casting cost. Having an indestructible creature is always nice!

Ector on Galea, the Equipmonger

2 months ago

The Ways To Victory

• ULTRON: Get enough buffs on a single creature, attack with it and kill people one by one. One Kaldra Compleat on Galea may be enough, as well as one Scytheclaw or Nettlecyst . Having Vigilance, Galea will also serve as a blocker. Use Unquestioned Authority or Thassa, God of the Sea to pass unblocked, though you can also use flyers. Personally I don't like this way much, as it "lacks of style", and killing opponents one by one may be too slow. But it could be more stylish if you steal the opponent's creature (there are 3 Auras for that) and kill everybody with it!
• KILL AND STEAL: Play Promise of Loyalty , then just steal the most powerful creature. Alternatively, you may protect Galea with Darksteel Plate and convince another player to play a board wipe, keeping your stealing/disrupting Auras in your hand.
• TRIDENT PUNCH: Play Surestrike Trident on something very very big, but without evasion, and kill players without attacking them. This works even with Glacial Chasm in play! If you have enough mana, you can even combo with Umbral Mantle , hitting several times per turn.
• DESTROY THE WORLD: Get Worldslayer with Kaldra Compleat or Darksteel Plate . Hit somebody, destroy all permanents except for your world slayer. Argentum Armor is a light version of this strategy.

ghostfire86 on Enchant and Draw

3 months ago

Working on the card draw and acquisition:

Sram, Senior Edificer

Kor Spiritdancer

Argothian Enchantress

Season of Growth

Setessan Champion

Armored Skyhunter

Siona, Captain of the Pyleas

End game requires consideration of going going long or wide:

If wide, switch commander to Siona, Captain of the Pyleas and include cards like Shielded by Faith, Gift of Immortality, Flickering Ward, Spirit Loop, Rancor, Fortitude, Whip Silk,Auratog, Thaumatog.

If long, add better protection enchantments. Suggestions include, Holy Mantle, Alseid of Life's Bounty, Spirit Mantle, Gift of Immortality, Umbra Mystic, Unquestioned Authority, Spectra Ward.

Siona would be my push because she adds combo lethality. Sythis is just a great 99 imo.

Shouldn’t forget, All That Glitters, Shield of the Oversoul, Gryff's Boon, Helm of the Gods, and Ancestral Mask

shadow63 on Wyleth, soul of combat card draw

3 months ago

I'd suggest some enchantments for this Benevolent Blessing . Spiri tmantel . Unquestioned Authority and Timely Ward

slowsti on

3 months ago

russ1656 thanks for the input I'll take a look at adding a few of those in there. I likely wont do Enlightened Tutor as its a bit pricey and I'm running cards I already own for the most part.. which is the same reason I have Lithoform Engine in instead of Strionic Resonator all good cards for sure though. I appreciate the input Scroll of Fate will definitely have to be something i pick up as well as Traveler's Cloak and Unquestioned Authority

russ1656 on

3 months ago

Strionic Resonator is like a 2 mana version of lithoform. It can be tutored with Tribute Mage and Enlightened Tutor and is the best Brago wincon in my opinion (along with Lithoform). I also like running some cheap cards that draw on ETB to flicker with Brago like Confounding Conundrum and Omen of the Sea . Act of Authority has been a top-notch removal spell for me. I find that his biggest weakness is getting through flying blockers. Usually, someone has no flyers out at the table, but if you play one-on-one, I'd add some evasion. Traveler's Cloak and Unquestioned Authority give evasion and a card when flickered. I don't see this in a lot of lists, but I love Scroll of Fate . You can manifest any permanent from your hand, then flicker it and it returns to play face up. Cloudform and Lightform do this too, but off the top of your deck instead. Here is my list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3871820#paper

jamochawoke on What, Exactly, is Wrong with …

6 months ago

I think something people have forgotten to mention about card draw in white in this thread is that it has some pretty huge synergies with auras and card draw.

For example:

• Mesa Enchantress
• Kor Spiritdancer
• Tallowisp
• Unquestioned Authority
• Sage's Reverie

And there's tons of white aura support with graveyard recursion that stops aura's big downfall (2 for 1'ing a creature that's been enchanted with a Doomblade or something). So if you were running a white auras deck you wouldn't have any problems with filtering, card draw, or graveyard recursion. It actually plays more like a blue deck than anything else white has to offer. It's just been overshadowed by the bogles deck archetype for auras, due to its incredible strength and showing in competitive tournaments, which demands WU or UG as its colors. Basically, why bother with recursion when you can just pop auras on unblockable hexproof creatures and have a deck that can't be interacted with?

Hc_Clan on Ghen, Arcanum Toolbox

8 months ago

Unquestioned Authority? Might be better than the red rune.