Veil of Summer

Instant

Draw a card if an opponent has cast a blue or black spell this turn. Spells you control can't be countered this turn. You and permanents you control gain hexproof from blue and from black until end of turn. (You and they can't be the targets of blue or black spells or abilities your opponents control.)

Discussion (51)

osumatthew on Planeswalkers Perfected

1 day ago

Hey, so I'm working on my own Superfriends list for Atraxa, and I'd love to hear some thoughts on a few things.

How do you feel about Garruk, Cursed Huntsman compared to Apex Predator? It's 1 mana less, you get two 2/2s instead of a 3/3 deathtouch, even if the loyalty they provide is delayed, the minus draws a card instead of gaining life, and the Ult is more versatile compared to Apex Predator. You lose the ability to kill other walkers, but I've rarely seen that as an issue in commander.

Do you think Vraska, Golgari Queen is a solid inclusion? She can't ult immediately off doubling season, but it's very strong, and she with a +2, her loyalty can increase very quickly. And, her minus is solid to clear out a variety of annoying cards.

What are your thoughts on removal and counter magic? I know you only run one instant, but disregarding personal taste, is it a good idea to run things like Veil of Summer, Swan Song and Counterspell to help protect your board state?

jaymc1130 on Chulane iCameo (cEDH Primer)

2 days ago

Apotheosis616

I don't think you fully appreciate the difference in skill play from your typical "cEDH" playgroup and a playgroup that consists, exclusively, of ex professional MTG players.

Our first 2 turns are generally set up also. Mana dorks, fast mana, maybe a cheap card advantage piece, but we are never, ever, EVER tapping out to do this. We're all running decks that contain 16-25 pieces of interaction. We all know we have it, or could be bluffing it, but some one definitely has it and a single piece of protection for our attempt is not ever going to be enough. Worse, when these over zealous attempts are made the table turns into an instant speed interaction war with everyone slinging things around and, as stated earlier, the very next person with turn priority wind's up with a commanding advantage. We aren't avoiding going for the early combo attempts because they get stuffed (the decks are redundant and resilient enough to recover), we aren't going for these attempts because the overwhelming majority of the time it grants the win to the next person in turn order priority.

We've played all those decks you list from your sessions, and not a single one you listed is tier 1 and posts even a 25% or better win rate in our group. And this over much, much larger sample sizes. The types of concepts these decks employ that allow them to win that quickly or only ever effective in the presence of less skillful players playing less well constructed decks and often less effective commanders. Hell, for the last 2 years in our playgroup Flash Hulk had a win rate under 25% (by the month of December 2019 it was in fact under 17%) because the Inception strategy simply dismantled it time in and time out. Something you have to keep in mind with data that's collected is that there is always an inherent bias in it. Tourney data for cEDH is sparse (at best, it's almost non existent compared to the other formats) and this means people have to rely on their own. For most playgroups this presents an issue because the data collected is not a result of the most skilled players in the format (or the game in general) piloting these decks and that data will contain certain flaws because of this. Just the same, OUR data set is also biased, though we take some rather extreme steps to drastically limit the bias and the pilots in question have lifetime success at the highest level of MTG competition (where most playgroups will never participate in a match with players who have earned lifetime pro points).

When our win attempts come they are typically a result of two things: 1) the table knows (or can reasonably surmise) one player has assembled a win in hand and will win for certain on the next turn they have so the table attempts their own before the cycle returns to them. Or 2) one player has secured enough of a resource advantage to be able to fight down 3 opponent's worth of interaction in the same turn. The third possibility, which is limited exclusively to circumstances where we are playing glass cannon all in combo decks, is that we force the attempt early because it's the only way the deck can actually win (Gitrog, Doomsday, Flash combos pre ban). This third possibility does not, did not, and never will result in consistent wins. It's less than 1/5th of the time. Closer to 1/6th. It tends to work when these combos can be employed on turn 1 or 2, and not at all turn 3 or later. These are decks that are designed with an over reliance on tutors and board delayed set up that present a major play pattern issue that such deck construction cannot resolve. They are forced to use tutors to search up the combo elements and postpone board state advancement in order to attempt to win that quickly and this makes these strategies extremely vulnerable to hand disruption and wheel effects as well as Extract that was central to the Inception strategy. Now we don't play that tactic as much these days because of the existence of Veil of Summer and the play patterns that card created, but even without the targeted hand disruption the overly tutor reliant play patterns proved too exploitable and over a large sample size of games that over reliance proved a significant detriment.

As for why Oracle's addition was so insignificant in helping those strategies, this was already addressed. The situations that Oracle's existence solved were the situations where Lab Man or Jace was in play, Forbidden tutor on the stack, and those pieces were hit with removal. This was already a very low percentage occurrence, so Thassa's Oracle doesn't change much and the primary means of stopping those lines is still interacting with the Forbidden Tutor itself. In the play patterns I describe where players play more skillfully and conservatively this makes these cards essentially dead cards in hand 90% of the time for the Consultation line player and playing a resource down is a big deal at that level of play.

Let's just start with something really simple, something incredibly fundamental and basic and see how you respond to the following situation. This will help gauge your competitive fundamentals and may help highlight why some of the things I'm stating are stated the way they are.

Here's the scenario:

There are 4 players in a pod. Turn priority is Shimmer/Doomsday Zur player 1, Dramatic Sceptor T&T player 2, Kess Consult player 3, T&V Curious Control player 4. It's currently turn cycle 3, Zur player's turn. They have a tapped Underground Sea and an untapped Tundra in play, a Chrome Mox in play with an exiled Ponder, an Imperial Seal in the graveyard, a just resolved Dark Ritual (tapping Underground Sea) in the graveyard with that 3 black mana used to cast Doomsday which is on the stack and 2 remaining cards in hand. You're player 2, you have Tropical Island in play untapped, any random fetch land untapped, untapped Birds of Paradise that is not summoning sick, tapped Mana Vault, untapped Grim Monolith, untapped Mox Opal. Your remaining hand consists of Counterspell, Chain of Vapor, and Vampiric Tutor. Kess, player 3, has an untapped Mana Confluence, an untapped Fiery Islet, a tapped Sol Ring, and a tapped Arcane signet, with a Preordain in the graveyard that previously bottomed both cards on their last turn, and 5 remaining cards in hand. Curious Control player 4 has a tapped Bayou, an untapped Command Tower, an untapped non summoning sick Deathrite Shaman, and a Carpet of Flowers with 5 cards remaining in hand. Doomsday is on the stack, you have priority, what do you do and why?

Xica on Kroxa Skred

6 days ago

If you play black there are plenty of better options than Skred - unless your meta is overrun by Veil of Summer. Fatal Push, Murderous Cut, Sinister Concoction (in casd you want to kill emrakul), and at 2 mana you havd cards like Dreadbore, that kill walkers too, exile effects to make things really dead and make sure that Wurmcoil Engine doesn't spawn its nrood when it dies like Epic Downfall.
Honorable mention goes to Tragic Slip.

And even if you need red removal badly, i would advise Magmatic Sinkhole over Skred

WhiteFoxOmega on Xyris, The Locust God 2.0

1 week ago

RNR_Gaming Thank you for pointing that out! I was stuck between Day's Undoing and Molten Psyche, and I thought I could get the triggers for the snakes the same way. My concern was to hit all graveyards to combat graveyard recursion decks. It seems counter productive in Xyris, though.

I like your list, too! Obviously, much more expensive lol, but I like your inclusion of Noxious Revival and Veil of Summer. Anvil of Bogardan is a spicy 2 drop that I didn't know about, and I will likely include that card in my updated list as well.

Futuremonk on Untrue Colors

1 week ago

Thanks!

Definitely some good color hate in green (e.g., Veil of Summer). Animar would be sweet, and it would be fun to surprise people that it wasn't a morph deck. Definitely would hurt the budget goal though. I thought about Jeskai, too, since white can get you cards like Story Circle and Eight-and-a-Half-Tails.

My thought is that blue is pretty much essential to this archetype, but other colors are optional. I've ordered the cards I need, so it will be one of the first decks I play once it's safe to play Magic with friends again.

While Jori En isn't very flashy, and there are other Izzet commanders that might even be more on-theme, the card draw is important. With all the janky color change spells, I wasn't able to include as much draw as I would have wanted, so having a source on a cheap commander will be important to keeping the deck going.

XaiLo on Spy Cat (with Primer!)

1 week ago

I noticed you don't run Savannah. Is that a budget call or a strategic one? Also not running Survival of the Fittest. Is that because of budget?

How is your early ramp? Most competitive decks run things like Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Carpet of Flowers, other 1 cmc dorks etc, rather than Skyshround Claim, Cultivate, etc. (Three Visits is another nonbudget card that I think is better than Cultivate in a competitive combo deck. There's also Arcane Signet, Talisman of Unity, Fellwar Stone, Mana Crypt, etc)

Would it be possible to shave off some combo lines, focus on only the best ones, and free up more slots for ramp and maybe removal/interaction like Nature's Claim or Veil of Summer or Rebuff the Wicked.

I totally get why this deck doesnt run hate bears like most competitive GW decks would. But on the other hand, I worry about it not having enough removal for OPPONENTS' hate pieces which could stifle the combo.

CodeKain on Godzilla Raids Again

1 week ago

Looks spicy enough, you may like also God-Eternal Rhonas, which can be a total blowout; End-Raze Forerunners is another piece that may add some oomph to close out a game, Xenagos, God of Revels is a total haymaker too.

Asceticism is relevant against spot removal, as well as Archetype of Endurance (although mana-hefty).

Wrap in Vigor and Spearbreaker Behemoth are key protection against wrath effects that may reset your boardstate.

Prowling Serpopard and Spellbreaker Behemoth protect you from counter effects.

Since your cuve is quite high I'd add some more ramp effects, like classic Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, Explore, Harrow, Skyshroud Claim and so on.

To refill your hand, you may consider some mass effects like Rishkar's Expertise and Soul's Majesty.

For extra beats you may sprinkle some Kessig Wolf Run.

Cheekiest card ever, but quite difficult to retrieve is Seedtime.

I tried to keep my suggestions somewhat on a budget, if you want to aim high you can go for Heroic Intervention, Veil of Summer, Traverse the Outlands, Worldly Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith, Tooth and Nail, Craterhoof Behemoth (Best with Avenger of Zendikar!!!).

Have fun with Godzilla!

balu-86 on Marath EDH

2 weeks ago

In my oppinion, if you wish to increase the token focus, I'd cut the following cards: Collector Ouphe, Felidar Guardian, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Omnath, Locus of Rage, Village Bell-Ringer, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Birthing Pod, Red Elemental Blast, evtl. Fauna Shaman

=> Remainders of the Kiki-Combo Package and anti-Control

I'd add the following cards

Doubling Season, Veil of Summer, Parallel Lives, Hour of Reckoning, (Grand Warlord Radha), Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Ohran Frostfang, Hellrider, Sylvan Reclamation, Enlightened Tutor

I also think you should add the following lands: Kessig Wolf Run, Contested Cliffs.