Unstable Obelisk

Artifact

: Gain .

, , Sacrifice Unstable Obelisk: Destroy target permanent.

Discussion (51)

TogaLlama on Oops All Rocks (EDH)

1 month ago

Some additional cards worth considering:

Bombs Myr Incubator Hellkite Tyrant

Rocks Unstable Obelisk Gilded Lotus Mana Vault Everflowing Chalice Thran Dynamo Hedron Archive

Mana Efficiency Ugin, the Ineffable Chief Engineer Cloud Key Treasonous Ogre Spell Swindle Clock of Omens

Land Rogue's Passage

Lokotor on Marchesa, The Black Rose - Primer

2 months ago

alexjustdoit

So far Teferi's Time Twist has been good. it's a pretty strong protective piece generally, and the +1/+1 counter on return for creatures makes it doubly so. But it's also good to be able to protect something like Mirage Mirror or Grave Pact in a pinch. it even helps vs a board wipe since it exiles until EoT.

It's a card I've definitely been glad to have added. I would recommend it.

If you were confused by my "considered cards" section notes, I meant that I wasn't sure if Unstable Obelisk would need to go back in or not.

Lokotor on Marchesa, The Black Rose - Primer

2 months ago

alexjustdoit

So far Teferi's Time Twist has been good. it's a pretty strong protective piece generally, and the +1/+1 counter on return for creatures makes it doubly so. But it's also good to be able to protect something like Mirage Mirror or Grave Pact in a pinch. it even helps vs a board wipe since it exiles until EoT.

It's a card I've definitely been glad to have added. I would recommend it.

If you were confused by my "considered cards" section notes, I meant that I wasn't sure if Unstable Obelisk would need to go back in or not.

MrKillStar on

2 months ago

Some good stuff! :D

First of all, I would probably just cut Gauntlet of Power/Caged Sun - mana doubling is nice, but for that mana and before it pays for itself, you could already cast some threatining spells/creatures. Black itself has already a lot of cards that can ramp pretty fast (+Gauntlet will double the mana of opponent's swamps aswell) and this doesnt really looks like some big token army deck to benefit from the +1/+1 buffs.
I'm personally not a big fan of Unstable Obelisk. Permanent removal in black is nice for sure, but for 7 (10) mana its kinda expensive I would say. And as a mana rock, its not a good one, since it wont give you . You should have already more than enough mana, especially with Crypt Ghast, Nirkana, other cheap mana rocks and a lot of lands (copyign Cabal Coffers ftw), you could just play Feed the Swarm as another enchantment/creature removal.

Some upgrades?

1) Tormod, the Desecrator - there is just few cards that trigger Tormod, but I would recommend Tortured Existence with Phyrexian Altar so you can make infinite etb/die/sac triggers. With something like Desecrated Tomb, which is just another option instead of Tormod, you can make infinite tokens aswell. I run that combo in my Syr Konrad's For the Void deck and it works great.
2) Bolas's Citadel - Citadel is just sooooo good :D You already have Gray Merchant of Asphodel + few free sac outlets (Ashnod's Altar/Woe Strider). If you add Mortuary, you can make infinite etb of Merchant, sac, life-gain and infinite colorless mana. With Phyrexian Altar instead of Ashnod's Altar, Haunted Crossroads is also an option (sac Merchant with Phyrexian altar to pay for Haunted Crossroads cost). Its kinda junky combo, but hey, as long as it works... :D
3) Twilight Prophet - I really like this card, I'll need to somehow make a space for it in my Syr Konrad deck aswell. In combination of the previous engine - Desecrated Tomb + Phyrexian Altar + Tortured Existence and Shadows of the Past, you can "tutor" for anything in your library to get the best value out of Twilight Prophet. Especially if you run aristocrat cards aswell. Also, Shadows of the Past with the engine is 10/10 for the Bolas's Citadel.
4) Pawn of Ulamog - little innocent dude that can go infinite with Nether Traitor and Phyrexian Altar, which would give you another source of inifnite etb/die/sac/mana of any color.

VastBadger on Gonti’s 5 finger discounts

4 months ago

Update to the last post. When I get the cards, I'll be switching a few things around.

Replacing Cauldron of Souls with Manascape Refractor. Replacing Nyx Lotus with Jet Medallion. Replacing Unstable Obelisk with Expedition Map. Replacing Decree of Pain with Toxic Deluge. Replacing Puppeteer Clique with Massacre Wurm. Replacing Kheru Mind-Eater with Opposition Agent. Replacing Ancient Craving with Vampiric Tutor.

MagicMarc on Colorless/Blue Artifact Deck Help!

5 months ago

You need to decide what you want the deck to do before you can start cutting cards. Without knowing your build goal, you will not be able to know where to cut.

What do you wan this deck to do? Examples/ideas:

Is this deck mainly aggro? then keep the big monsters and the ramp. Cut the little creatures that are not mana dorks or cost reduction.
Is this deck mid-range good stuff? then cut creatures until you get 14-18, And add interaction cards to stop or negate your opponent's plays.
Is this a combo deck of some kind? For example; Is it built around Icy Manipulator + Voltaic Key for it's control? then get rid of the other stuff that is not part of that game plan.
Or is it going to cheat stuff out with Amulet and bridge? Then get rid of the icys and keys and focus on cheating big fat bombs out early.
Is it a toolbox deck? then cut your bombs and strong cards to 1 copy each and add more tutors to the deck.
These are just a tiny sample of archetypes, I am just showing how you can decide what kind of deck this is. Once you do, a lot of the cuts may become obvious depending on what you want for the deck.

But there are some cuts you should do no matter what goal you have:

-3 Fabricate (You already have 4 tinkers and 2 tezzerets), -1 Black Vise (Without support for it only 1 copy of this is just an annoyance when it shows up in your hand or is in play), -1 Paradox Engine (This is a freaking amazing card but it does not do a lot for this particular deck) , -1 Winter Orb (Like vise, without support it is not that useful with 1 copy), -1 Colossus of Akros (You have better big bombs already), -4 Etched Champion (this is a vanilla 2/2 most of the time and is probably the worst creature in your list), -4 Ornithopter (These are okay with the other cards in your deck but you will ramp into big stuff so fast they are just not too useful), -4 Welding Jar (at the very least cut it down to 2 since it synergizes with Academy Ruins. But Academy Ruins, Tinker, and Tezzeret the Seeker do the same thing kind of as this already. Id cut all of them to the maybeboard and see how it plays).
In a vacuum, none of these cards are bad by themselves. But none of these cards help you reach your goals for the deck. And only having 1 of something has a very low chance of seeing play. So if it does see play, it needs to do big things for you.

For your lands, they are another resource for the deck. So I would suggest filling in your land base with support cards. Stuff like;

+3 Buried Ruin (if you dont want to get more academy ruins), +2 Rogue's Passage (they don't hurt and can let you win off the back of one of your big creatures), +2 Arch of Orazca (really, slots of any land that gives card advantage), +5 more Islands or so, whatever gets you to 20-22 lands. If you dont want any of the other non-island cards, just add islands.

Your deck has very little interaction and I would suggest adding some to the deck. There are hundreds of options but I would look to add stuff that is similar to any of the following cards:

Spine of Ish Sah, Unstable Obelisk, or Meteor Golem. These cards synergize with academy ruins and buried ruin and can be Tinker targets when you need them. Just 1 or 2 copies of cards like these in the deck you can tutor for. Once you bring one of them online, you can keep bringing them back repeatedly to destroy your opponent's game state.

Then you need instant speed answers you can use to respond to what your opponent's do. Interaction is important and you will lose games just because you didnt have a Disenchant in your hand. Add copies of stuff like Scour from Existence, Titan's Presence, Not of This World or even repeatable stuff like Capsize or similar.

tl;dr
I am not saying you have to do any of the things I suggested. But you do need to decide what you want to do with the deck, cut cards, and add land and add interaction to the deck or it may just stay a hot mess like it is now.

Lokotor on Marchesa, The Black Rose - Primer

5 months ago

M4RK0G91 indeed. I'm probably going to replace Unstable Obelisk or Bedevil with it, though I haven't fully settled on what to replace yet.

Zythirix on Scarab God Dimir CMDR deck

5 months ago

This looks like a great start, but it needs just a couple things. First off, you have very little protection for your commander. He's wayyy too open to be murdered every time you drop him. If I were you, I'd replace all the counters with protection. (Like, Whispersilk Cloak, or Neurok Stealthsuit, Lightning Greaves etc.) Also, you need to have more removal. You only have a few in there, and I wouldn't think of counters as removal, because that can be a trap. Also, a big thing you gotta have is card draw. I'm not seeing a ton, and without card draw you'll render yourself pretty weak. But it is really nice you can Scry with Scarab God :D

And one more thing, in Dimir, you have VERY few ways of dealing with (destroying/exiling) Artifacts/Enchantments. It might be helpful to run something like Unstable Obelisk or things like it even though its a little steep of a cost.