Vannifar, Evolved Enigma

Legendary Creature — Elf Ooze Wizard

At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose one —

• Cloak a card from your hand. (To cloak a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature with ward {2}. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card. While face down, whenever it becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays {2}.)
• Put a +1/+1 counter on each colourless creature you control.

Tokens

• A Mysterious Creature 2/2 C

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
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (4)

capwner on How have your EDH games …

1 week ago

Massive and overdetailed game breakdown incoming, be forewarned

I've been testing this mono black control list and had some epic grind fests, I just finished an extremely long and hard fought game against Simic, Izzet Storm, and an upgraded Necron precon Szarekh, the Silent King. You'll never guess who the problem was. Ok this game was absolutely wild, so after about an hour of normal play i.e. simic is simicing and has a rhystic, I have necropotence and bowmasters (2 of my 3 gc's) and I'm keeping the game mostly under control, Mizzix player is totally cucked bc they keep losing their Mizzix, Necron guy is casting Necrons, and it's mostly a fight of Vannifar, Evolved Enigma trying to gain steam and me removing all their stuff except I can't touch the rhystic so we're both full up on cards. First crux of the game, Vannifar player plays Ixidron, I tuck my Crypt Ghast under The Moment. On my turn I pop the moment and get my ghast back, clearing the rhystic but taking a lot of collateral. I tried to completely recover from the moment wrath via Yawgmoth's Will but Vannifar had a counter for it. So I do seem to pull ahead here, Mizzix just quits and I manage to get lethal on Vannifar. So then it's me and Necron guy. Enter the halfway mark of the game, a 1v1 now. He's at full and I'm at half. I have Crypt Ghast, Gauntlet of Power and both coffers so tons of mana, also I have Bowmaster and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. My opponent has Caged Sun and Biotransference, and a good board of Necrons with a Trazyn the Infinite threatening to copy a Bolas's CitadelGC in the yard. I have Dimir Machinations and Languish but most of his stuff is too big, he's mono black so my gauntlet and his sun both pump him lol. I'm so low on life, at this point I need to %100 control the game or lose but I'm in a decent position to do it with the Yawgmoth. Here's my big choice, I use machinations to get Maralen of the Mornsong, then use Talon Gates of Madara to phase her out until my next turn. I take a hit here because I tapped to attack and kill Vannifar. I fumbled a little because I could have used the Yawgmoth and discarded some lands to -1/-1 and reduce my damage. I owned it and go down to 5. My turn, the Maralen phases in, I go down to 2 life. Can you guess what I get with her? Umezawa's Jitte. I needed some kind of life gain and Jitte was just about my last hope. Because I had so much mana and lands in hand, I was able to proliferate Jitte with Yawg and use both modes to perfectly Languish all the Necrons while pumping my board. I draw back up but nothing great. Their turn. They have huge mana too, replay their flying commander and make bonus necrons from Biotransference. Threatening lethal again. Back and forth, I'm CLINGING TO LIFE against these (still pumped +2) necrons, by using yawg ability and Jitte to snipe them and proliffing about 4 times a turn. He gets Bolas's CitadelGC on board, recurred via the commander. I got a harnessed The Soul Stone and recur Maralen to tutor on my turn, then sac her to yawg (she died to languish before). I still don't have enough life to go for the oppo lock because they are going too wide and I have to actively snipe necrons to stay alive AND prevent the lethal Bolas's CitadelGC activation. I have Maha, Its Feathers Night and Night of Souls' Betrayal which does NOT kill the necrons but brings them to X/2, I tutor and asymmetrical sweep again with Nuclear Fallout and finally we are are looking a bit safer. I'm still hovering at 1-2 life each turn (on Jitte life support, allowing me to maralen tutor) and barely keeping them off the lethal citadel activation. But I drew like ass, deck has no wincons only sorc speed removal, and I'm dead as soon as they can get 10 nonland perms which could be any turn. But I do have enough cards and mana to use yawg/jitte to stay alive. Finally, I draw Plague Engineer on a Massacre Girl trigger on their turn (responding to their trigger making the lethal necrons and sniping the existing ones). They pass. I use Soul Stone -> recur Maralen and get Engineered Plague. 39 cards left in my deck. I cast BOTH PLAGUES finally making the Necrons X/0 and they concede on the spot sealing the game. HOLY F*CJKSCING NECRONS!!!! Seriously was the most epic game I've had in a while and not at all who I expected trouble from in that pod. WELL PLAYED. Well PLAYED, Necron dude.

Slurpz on Crouching Kadena, Hidden Phage

1 year ago

ksleazy - Scroll of Fate has been in and out of this deck since its inception. It does all those things as you say, but I find that it doesn't do enough of any one thing to further me winning to warrant it a slot. Since I want to be able to cast Phage, I tend to want to play all of my lands, and outside of that the only thing I would really want to be manifesting is maybe a Vedalken Orrery or a Final-Word Phantom. The decklist is tight enough at this point that I want be playing my cards over manifesting them. In the case that I have a glut of cards and I can comfortably manifest a land, then the ceiling of what is available with Scroll of Fate is still lackluster. I'd rather a morph or something that gives flash to take the 'Scroll of Fate spot' to keep that part of the deck consistent. I found in my experience that the manifest and get in an unblocked Phage strategy is too clunky and inconsistent to keep it in the deck long term after achieving it once. It's always on my radar though and the recent release of Vannifar, Evolved Enigma prompted some more rounds or testing with it but as I said I didn't find this strategy to be consistent enough for my liking.

Sorry for the paragraph and delayed response but I have spent more time in the shower debating with myself whether Scroll of Fate is worth it than I would like to admit and had to get my thoughts sorted out lol. Glad you liked the deck and thanks for the comment!

Slurpz on Crouching Kadena, Hidden Phage

1 year ago

Annexus

In the current iteration I'm just hardcasting Phage. I've experimented manifesting/cloaking with Scroll of Fate or Vannifar, Evolved Enigma for a sneak attack but you still need to pay the cost to flip Phage and you need to get the manifest in unblocked or risk Phage in combat. Ixidor, Reality Sculptor can cheat on flipping Phage but at this point IMO there are too many clunky pieces trying to come together to make a risky/inconsistent plan for a one shot work. I've tried to optimize for overall consistency and I found that the pieces here weren't fitting in well enough or bringing enough value to keep the strategy. I've considered changing the deck name for clarity but I haven't had the heart to yet lol. Thanks for the comment and upvote!

wallisface on Arcbound Scales

2 years ago

Some thoughts:

• your land count is very low, especially when you’re running 3 copies of a legendary land. For reference, the meta hardened scales runs around 24 lands and has an average mana-cost of only 1.5 (treating cards like Walking Ballista as worth {2}). You’ve only got 19 lands and your average mana-cost is a much higher 1.9 (assuming Thought Monitor and Thoughtcast only ever cost {U}).

• Shadowspear is generally only ever good because it can be grabbed with Urza's Saga - without Saga it’s much harder to justify.

• 4 mana is very steep, especially considering your land count, and I don’t see either Arcbound Crusher or Vannifar, Evolved Enigma doing nearly-enough to justify their cost.

• Fabricate feels very slow/clunky when Ancient Stirrings exists.