Valorous Stance

Instant

Choose one —

• Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy it.)
• Destroy target creature with toughness 4 or greater.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Apollo_Paladin on Toxicubation

1 year ago

Hey +1 just for seeing another Arena player on here!

The first thing I'd suggest is that (without reliable extra card draw) a 68-card build is going to be problematic in delivering consistent games. I'd trim down to 60 cards. Drop 1 basic plains for sure, as 26 lands is fine for your mana curve.

You might also look at some other protection options. You have a wide array of permanent types here (Enchantment, Planeswalker, Creature, which is fine), but adding in a few copies of a common card like Tamiyo's Safekeeping can help a lot for protecting some of your more important big drops. The Valorous Stance copies your running aren't bad cards, but they don't do anything to protect your other permanents, and also Indestructible isn't itself 100% reliable since Exile effects aren't really that hard to come by, and Indestructible shows up often enough on cards that many control decks run at least 1 Exile option. Safekeeping gives Hexproof in addition to Indestructible, so it can do wonders against a wide array of threats, including Exile and Return-to-Hand effects.

You could leave Valorous Stance's in (they really aren't bad cards) for extra protection (you are rather creature-slanted in this build) and potential removal, but I would make room for 2 or even 3 Safekeepings if you intend to keep the build mostly as-is. Without knowing what cards you favor and find most reliable, it's hard to suggest further what to add or remove, but that'd be my starting recommendation: Trim down to 60 cards, and also find a way to slip 2 or 3 Tamiyo's Safekeepings in & go from there.

Either way, you have a good direction going here. Feel free to add me on Arena if you want to discuss deck builds/strategy or run some test games:

Apollo_Paladin#83413 on Arena

greyninja on tBZ_Shanna-purify

1 year ago

+1 from me! Looks fun. I like a lot of your choices like Shabraz, the Skyshark, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, and Ivory Tower.

What do you think about Well of Lost Dreams or Dawn of Hope to take better advantage of cards like Spectrum Sentinel or Daxos who will often gain life on your opponent’s turns? I had them both in my original list, but found I was mostly gaining life on my turn and wanted the extra slots instead of redundancy. Food for thought though.

If you do add the Horizon Chimera and Drogskol Reaver combo, be sure to leave a few mana open to Valorous Stance your own Reaver to stop it! Or have Thassa's Oracle out before you start! Would hate to die in an unstoppable loop hahaha love it

Please give an upvote to my Shanna deck if you can!

Hawksfield on Burn It All V2

2 years ago

Velomachus is very important to your strategy, so a few more ways to protect him would not go amiss. Some options like: Brave the Elements, Stave Off, Valorous Stance, Adamant Will, Blacksmith's Skill

HashBR on Suicide Hammer - Budget - Feedback is welcome

2 years ago

Edited a bit.

Removed Boros Charm and Valorous Stance added some Chained to the Rocks which makes me wonder If I should try to get more dual-lands so I can get more mountains.

Also reduced some artifacts amounts with these Open the Armory.

Got Basic Lands since Base Camp is slow and not that great to a 2-color deck.

eliakimras on Breena - Silverquill Statement Upgrade

2 years ago

Hey, me again! I really like Breena, the Demagogue's premise. I want to build her in the future, since I'm cultivating a combat metagame. But I have some ideas that can make your deck funnier and stronger:

I imagine you're trying to keep the idea of giving gifts to your opponents for them to killing each other, while reaping benefits to you.

One way is to force combat. You might want to put Martial Impetus and Parasitic Impetus back to deflect attacks and get draws off Breena. (Too bad goad is a blue-red thing - come on Wizards, give us on other colors). Otherwise, they buff Breena to hit harder.

Another thing you should consider is protection for your creatures:

• Sejiri Shelter  ^Flip and Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip can be slotted as lands.
• Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Whispersilk Cloak, Darksteel Plate and Hammer of Nazahn are great utility artifacts.
• Timely Ward has flash.
• Dawn Charm doubles as a fog.
• Valorous Stance doubles as a removal spell.

How about protection to you?

• No Mercy, Dread, Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker and Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts deter attackers.
• Koskun Falls is a second Ghostly Prison if you can pay its upkeep cost. Solitary Confinement is even more efficient, as long as you can keep up with its cost.
• No one will mess with you again once you cast Hellish Rebuke. Darien, King of Kjeldor also shows them why attacking you is not advisable.
• If you prefer the way of taxing opponents, Sphere of Safety synergize with your other pillowfort enchantments.

About recursion:

• You run a lot of permanents that might die. How about getting them back with Sun Titan or Emeria Shepherd?
• Mistveil Plains has good synergy with tutors.
• Liesa, Forgotten Archangel also acts as graveyard hate.

About card draw:

• Breena costs 3 mana and it is easy to recast, but you can't rely on your opponents wanting (or being able) to attack each other. Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Treacherous Blessing, War Room and Castle Locthwain can be great options (it is good to lower your life total to trigger Breena). Erebos, God of the Dead can also act as a blocker and life-gain hater.
• Skullclamp is good if you can reliably generate X/1 tokens.
• Syphon Mind is a favorite of mine.
• Mangara, the Diplomat... The name says it all. #bffBreena
• Shadrix Silverquill is not only on-theme, but on-school aswell.
• Endless Atlas and Dread Presence require many basic lands.
• The cards above can replace Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving and Secret Rendezvous (if they want free cards, may they attack each other).

About your ramp:

• I see you run cards that ramp you if an opponent has more lands than you, a la Knight of the White Orchid. Your Lotus Field is great for setting that up. You might also consider putting Orzhov Basilica back for the same effect.
• Loyal Warhound, Verge Rangers, Weathered Wayfarer, Archaeomancer's Map and Isolated Watchtower also capitalize on opponents ramping. I recommend replacing Boreas Charger (if you can't kill it easily), Scholarship Sponsor (not advisable to give ramp AND card draw to your opponents) and Oreskos Explorer (it is better to get lands on the battlefield instead of on hand, unless it is an unrestricted tutor like Weathered Wayfarer).
• If you ramp using the cards above, you will have a lot of Plains on the battlefield. Emeria, The Sky Ruin is free recursion on a land - enjoy ;-)
• You might also consider Fellwar Stone and Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip as ramp options. Breena has flying, so it is easy to transform the artifact.

Sorry for not commenting on your whole deck. Since I have not played her myself, I could only suggest more general things. I hope the suggestions have inspired you somehow. As always, have fun with the Demagogue!

LinkOpensChest_wav on Yikes! Humans!

2 years ago

I added some more targeted removal such as Valorous Stance and Oblivion Ring. I could still probably use more, but at least it's something.

I also replaced Citywide Bust with Vanquish the Horde. There are better wraths out there, but that's at least an improvement.

I also took out a couple less effective humans and put in some creatures like Lena, Selfless Champion and Nils, Discipline Enforcer - which in my playgroup might be good since there are often a lot of counters on the table.

I did a lot more too. I'm going to test it in my playgroup in less than 40 minutes, so I'm sure later I'll want to do even more. In fact, I wanted to go into more detail about some other updates I made, but I've got to leave or I'll be late lol

SaberTech on Yikes! Humans!

2 years ago

I've yet to have the chance to sit down across from a human tribal commander deck. Considering how much support the tribe has gotten over the years that kind of surprises me, you would think that they would be more common. This deck looks like it is gearing to be a fun human stompy deck and its price is pretty reasonable. Some key points you may want to pay attention to though is that the deck has very few removal options and I think there are some pump effects that you are missing out on.

Kyler, Sigardian Emissary is really affordable right now and looks like a good addition to help give your creatures some extra power to throw around. It conflicts with Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa though. Still, it's a cheaper card to buy than Cathars' Crusade while giving a similar game-swinging effect, especially if you were to also run Increasing Devotion in the deck.

Good-Fortune Unicorn and Renata, Called to the Hunt do half of what Durable Handicraft can do but don't require you to pay mana to do it, letting you play more cards more easily in a turn while still giving you a pump effect. They help build up the +1/+1 synergies that you are already working with, like Abzan Falconer.

Champion of Lambholt Would be another way to help you to push a bunch of damage through and feeds a bit off of other cards you may rung that can pump it.

In regards to removal, I think that you should be running some more instant speed options instead of damage prevention cards like Repel the Abominable, since you don't need to worry about preventing the damage from creatures that are already dead. There are a number of good options. If you are worried about creatures dying then you could consider Valorous Stance since it is about to be reprinted and can both kill and protect.

Working in some creatures that double as removal is another way to go.

Kogla, the Titan Ape is a top-of-curve budget pick-up that can save your human creatures and lets you re-use ETB effects like Eternal Witness's, on top of doubling as removal.

Devout Chaplain is a particular payoff for running humans, giving access to a repeatable source of artifact and enchantment removal. Intrepid Hero also gives you a way to cut down your opponents' larger creatures while you build up your own forces.

As a random addition: Sakura-Tribe Elder can combo with Emeria Shepherd to pull a bunch of Plains out of your deck in one go.

Humans have a lot of options to work with so I imagine that you could be tinkering with this deck for a long while to figure out what you like and what you don't. I hope some of my suggestions help give you some ideas to try out.

legendofa on Plains/Water First deck

3 years ago

Basically, Isochron Scepter lets you choose a spell, and then cast that spell every turn. If the spell you choose is Silence , then you can cast Silence every time your opponent starts their turn. This prevents them from ever casting a spell, so they're stuck with whatever they already have out. Does that make sense?

Since you don't own Grand Abolisher , take it out. That frees up about $30 to spread around and improve your other cards. You could get an extra copy of Narset Transcendent and two more Path to Exile s and still have $8-10 left over if you drop Grand Abolisher , Citadel Siege , and one of the Valorous Stance s. It's almost always better to have multiple copies of your best cards, to make it more likely you draw them.