Virtue of Knowledge
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Legality

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

Virtue of Knowledge

Enchantment

If a permanent entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.


(You may cast Virtue of Knowledge from exile if you sent it on an adventure.)

Vantress Visions

Instant — Adventure

Copy target activated or triggered ability you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.

(Then send this card on an Adventure in exile. You may cast the enchantment portion from exile.)


(You may cast Vantress Visions for from anywhere if you would have permission to cast it in that zone, then exile it on an adventure instead of putting it into your graveyard. When you have not chosen to cast Vantress Visions and put it on the stack, this card is treated only as Virtue of Knowledge in whatever zone it is in.)

(When not exiled on an adventure, Adventure cards function identically to modal double faced cards when regarding to the interactions of cards that look at them or attempt to cast them.)

ASalesman on Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)

2 months ago

Minor rev and other rambling

It is getting oh so much harder to justify substitutions. Lotuscon is a week out and I feel the heat.

  • Replace Thran Dynamo with Tezzeret the Seeker. This sub is about artifact tutoring and mana. The deck needed at least one more way to tutor Isochron Scepter, and other artifacts. Tezzeret does this. But tezzeret is also versatile, and it has the potential to do thran dynamos job better than thran dynamo. The +1 ability can target man vault, grim monolith, and basalt monolith. It doesn't always do this better than thran, but lets talk about the downsides to thran. As mentioned above, less versatility. But the mana cost for thran is quite high. At 4 cmc I want to play game winning cards. Thran can help power out Unesh. BUT, if thran is in your opening hand and it is your path to casting Unesh, there are better plans in the deck and you should mulligan that hand anyway. Tezzeret can be any of our game winning artifacts, for 1 more mana than thran. Thran is nice for quality of life during the game, but it does not win the game. One other great thing about Tezzeret in Unesh, is that he actually can have some decent blockers to keep him around for more than 1 turn, so he is also still great DURING the game. Almost all of the upside of thran dynamo AND some on this card.

I have also thought about replacing Dream Eater with something less expensive like Sakashima's Student or Metallic Mimic. Dream eater is the most replacable sphinx in the deck, and it is HARD to justify a replacement still. For one, this creature is removal. Play this to remove a stalwart stax piece and win the game on the same turn. Also, Surveil 4 is almost another Unesh trigger by itself, and this ability benefits from our awesome cards Panharmonicon and Virtue of Knowledge. Dream eater helps in so many ways that I fell as though it can't come out.

I have also heavily considered Merchant Scroll and Fabricate. It is hard to justify replacing anything for these cards. In the current revision, I think we see the combos as fast as possible without inundating our ability to interact.

I really like the card Submerge. I think it is better than Rapid Hybridization. Main targets for this slot are stax creatures such as Collector Ouphe, and commanders. The 'forest' part of Submerge's cost is going to be online a lot (probably). Zero mana interaction is better than 1 mana interaction. As a kicker, some decks in the format can effectively use the 3/3 creature that rapid hybridization gives them. This substitute is probably coming, but I am still contemplating.

Azoth2099 on Inalla's destructive ally conspiracy

2 months ago

MagicalOreo

Hey man, Virtue of Knowledge is a new Panharmonicon effect that you may wanna slot in here! I see you're really trying to max out the ETB value.

Azoth2099 on Inalla - Wizard Tribal

2 months ago

Excellent Commander choice, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is my undisputed favorite Commander, and perhaps my most powerful decklist.

The main wincons I'm using in my list are lines through Spellseeker and/or Micromancer which ends up creating infinite Archaeomancer or Scholar of the Ages Tokens after like 15 or 20 steps with a series of Instants and Sorceries (I can teach you, if you feel like learning all of it). I'm also running Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer & Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation.

Some trigger doublers like Naban, Dean of Iteration, Harmonic Prodigy, Panharmonicon & Virtue of Knowledge could go a long way, too. Not necessarily doublers, but Archmage of Echoes, Molten Echoes & Reflections of Littjara have a similar effect.

Venser, Shaper Savant is a must in budget Inalla. I'd also consider Patron Wizard, Sigil Tracer & Voidmage Prodigy if your intention is to run a crapload of Wizard creatures. In my experience, though, Inalla doesn't actually need that many Wizards, just the right ones.

Here's my own Inalla, Archmage Ritualist list if you wanna peep it: MICROSEEKER (INALLA)

ASalesman on Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)

2 months ago

GHoag thank you for your most critical feedback. I agree with a lot you have to say on this. There are a few things I'd like to discuss further. I'll mirror your format so you know how I am responding to what. Thank you for the praise on the list so far, there is definitely some things to be worked out still. "The pinnacle is a concept only to the unambitious" -flavor text from a card I don't remember lol. (sorry for the novel below)

Regarding Fetchlands, I think the deck thinning is negligible or very hard to notice at most. This aspect of them definitely can't be a bad thing. But playtesting has shown that the negative effects of including them are negligible. I have never been upset about running all 4. Also, the synergy these lands has with Vantress Visions (Virtue of Knowledge) feels reeeally good.

Rite of Replication is expensive mana wise. The purpose of Rite is to get through your whole deck in one go assuming Unesh is on the field, which is not always the case. In my playtesting, it has been very hard to resolve due to mana cost, and when you do meet the mana requirement it is never safe from interaction. Given these flaws, this card might as well say "if you are targetting Unesh and this card resolves, you win the game." With the FOFs, you can pick up all counter magic and free mana rocks on the way down your deck to cast & protect Thassa's Oracle. A non-negligible side effect, this makes choosing piles easier to do because you no longer have to grab sphinxs or other wincons. This wincon is still relevant at this mana cost. I think the jury is still out if this is the best choice though. With inifinite mana you can do something similar, and I'll talk more about this below. Q: Why not add Personal Tutor? Simply because you don't need 3 copies of Rite. I already don't like Mystical Tutor, but the versatility to grab any instant makes it worth it. By the time you meet the mana requirement, you will have seen Rite or Mystical Tutor. Personal Tutor is too narrow to have in a slot, even on the 'Rite' plan.

cEDH meta talk, there is Turbo, midrange, and stax (early win, midgame win, lategame win respectively.) The average win without any interaction is turn 6-7 on this revision. This solidly puts Unesh into midrange. I think he can be sped up a bit with more revisions. Turn 4 is a late win for Turbo, but with enough interaction to stop the turbo player we can get to the midrange and win the game. Unesh suffers against a a few stax pieces. The main ones being Torpor Orb (which doesn't see a ton of play these days), and Null Rod and Collector Ouphe. Collectore Ouphe doesn't feel so bad with our interaction suite, and Null Rod is even more of a nuissance. If both are on the field, it is an absolute nightmare for Unesh.

Creatures: Yes a lot of fat was trimmed, and it took some time to really narrow down the best Sphinxs in these slots. There is still room for improvement here. For instance Vexing Sphinx feels awful. The reason I added it a while back was because he can be played early game for a bit of card draw. The card draw from this is not worth the mana spent, the fact that even with Unesh out he is 2 blue to cast also feels very bad. I will definitely replace him with another Sphinx, probably Argent Sphinx or Metallic Mimic. For 2 blue I am much happier to see the mana sink on Argent Sphinx. And for 2 colorless I am happy to see possibly the next cheapest sphinx not already in the deck. Enigma Thief though high CMC, I can reliably cast him for his prowl cost at 2 cmc, and his removal is top notch. Dream Eater though the removal is not the best, it is still good. The kicker here is honestly the surveil 4. You do Unesh FOF first, then surveil 4 and hopefully you can put all 4 in the graveyard. Still dream eater does feel a bit slower than everything else. Scholar of the Lost Trove, upfront I feel very strongly about this card. It's not because this is a pet card, it's because I think its very powerful in this deck. Even at 5cmc which is what I normally cast it for, it feels like insane value. You get the Unesh trigger, and a wincon from the graveyard that the opponents thought they didn't have to deal with anymore. After doing some math on this, the average cost of an Unesh trigger with Unesh on the field is ~2.25 cmc in the current revision (that is the cmc of a card generating the FOF divided by the total number of things generating FOFs excluding Rite). At 5 cmc, casting the Scholar gives you a 4 cmc game winning artifact and a ~2.25 cmc Unesh trigger. Not to mention, it gives you flexibility in choosing piles. For instance, If an opponent erroneously puts Panharmonicon in a pile by itself, you can shamelessly take the other 3 cards in that FOF. Palinchron is also rather expensive to set up, but not as expensive as Rite. I think it is a good back up win condition. If Rite doesn't resolve, or if Isochron w/ dramatic reversal doesn't resolve, we need at least one other way to combo off. With ways to tutor for High Tide this win condition has been online surprisingly often, and is definitely threatening. That said having this AND Rite feels too heavy mana wise. I think I am pretty much sold on Isoscepter because of how inexpensive it is. With recent mana rock additions as well as Mox Diamond and Grim Monolith (mentioned below) the wincon is online for far cheaper than Rite and effectively does the same job, also dramatic reversal can be used as a one time use now which makes it good on it's own.

Lands: After a day of listening to cEDH podcasts, this is what I came up with. Urza's Saga is nuts. After playtesting with these lands I felt a big power spike. Thank you for mentioning Mystic Sanctuary again. I didn't think about it being able to retrieve a wincon which is pretty relevant. I will consider slipping this one back in there. I also think that losing just one more Island wouldn't be very impactful. What do you think about Command Beacon? After playtesting, I think there is such a niche case when this card is good in cEDH. I think I prefer an Island here given the more recent revisions.

Enchantments: Agreed, all of these are great cards. Not much to change here.

Instants: I don't think there are any cuts to be made here. After playtesting I think I need to add more Instants to more reliably shut off early combo wins. Demonic Consultation and Ad Nauseum are rampant. Even fitting in a Dispel or Spell Pierce to the deck would go a long way.

Artifacts: Work needs to be done here. I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Lightning Greaves feels bad because board interaction is light and stack interaction is high in cEDH. Caged Sun is usually too expensive to play without cheating it in with Scholar. But scholar wants to hit other game winning cards anyway, so Caged sun needs to go. Grim Monolith and Mox Diamond need to go in. I have been reluctant to add them to the list because I don't have paper copies. You are spot on with these two though. I am not high on Moonsilver Key, but I do like Wayfarer's Bauble. The bauble putting a land into play is important to getting palinchron online, and this also sees great synergy with Vantress Visions similar to the fetch lands. Though bauable is definitely worse than mox diamond and grim monolith, it would be my last cut. Mox Amber indeed doesn't power Unesh out, but we don't need it to. I will say that my playtests have really favored this card. Being able to play more mana artifacts after a FOF for free will keep the FOFs rolling. Mox Amber feels very good. Mox diamond is superior, but I won't take out Mox Amber for it.

REVISION: After synthesizing both our viewpoints, here is a revision that I will go ahead and push. I think you will like this mostly, but let me know your doubts.

EXPLANAITION: This rev cuts the Rite wincon and adds the less expensive Isoscepter wincon. There is still backup wincon in Aetherflux. Isoscepter is backed up by Palinchron, and Aetherflux is supported by Palinchron. Obviously, the goal with infinite mana is to play Thassa's eventually. Dramatic Reversal is good enough on its own now because of the artifacts added recently. I honestly think this is the cheapest that the wincon package can be while still being robust enough to not fizzle out. With these wincons, Unesh doesn't have to be on the field, which makes the deck less reliant on him, mitigating one of the deck's biggest flaws. Cutting Lightning Greaves will likely be inconsequential due to low board state interaction. Muddle and Spell pierce add some more stack interaction while Muddle can find combo pieces. I went with Spell pierce over Dispel because it can hit stax pieces as well as stopping an early combo win. Cutting a sphinx now relies on Ghostly Flicker to be part of the 20%. Mystic Sanctuary and Scholar of the Lost Trove are used to retrieve wincons from the grave if necessary.

I heavily considered subbing Dream Eater for Argent Sphinx. I will need to playtest that change before committing to it.

Azoth2099 on Naban Wizard Tribal

2 months ago

Wizards were my 1st Commander archetype! Here some recs to help you get to, execute & get more value out of your stated wincons a bit faster:

Creatures: Stonybrook Banneret, Snapcaster Mage, Sea Gate Stormcaller, Micromancer, Archmage of Echoes & Wandering Archaic  Flip

Artifacts: Jeweled Amulet, Springleaf Drum, Pyre of Heroes, Urza's Incubator, Sensei's Divining Top & Cryptic Gateway

Enchantments: Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Parallel Thoughts, Kindred Discovery & Virtue of Knowledge

Instants: Long-Term Plans & Intuition (just proxy it, who cares lol)

Sorceries: Personal Tutor, Solve the Equation, Step Through, Fabricate, Merchant Scroll

Lands: Cavern of Souls

Incorporating some of the Tutors and card draw & Ramp here will get you there imho. Let me know what you think!

ASalesman on Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)

2 months ago

One more rev and talk about a strong new Synergy

  • Take out Nexus of Fate for Ledger Shredder and move Back to Basics to the sideboard. The Nexus is great casually, but if I am paying 7 mana for a spell it better win me the game. Nexus of fate just doesn’t do that. Ledger Shredder is another card draw engine, it gets you deeper in to the deck. In cases where nexus of fate sits dead in your hand doing nothing, ledger shredder can be on the field generating excellent value, and it is 5 cmc less. I understand that infinite turns will no longer be wincon, and I think that’s okay. Thassa’s and Aetherflux fill those roles well enough. I will be updating the guide soon to talk about these recent additions as well as remove irrelevant info.
  • Take out an Island for Lorien Revealed. Another deck thinning card that is basically still a land, but it has other synergies. The island cycling is another effect that can be copied by Virtue of Knowledge. This card can also be cast from the graveyard by Scholar of the Lost Trove. You will rarely hard cast this card, but you can in dire straits.

Speaking of Scholar of the Lost Trove, this card has some great synergy with recently added Orvar, the All-Form. When you cast Scholar of the lost trove while Orvar is on the battlefield, you can cast all bounce spells in your graveyard, then still get your value engine from the graveyard after that. If Unesh is on the field when this happens, you can get through a lot of your deck. If Aetherflux Reservoir is on the field you can get a large storm count. The cycle goes like this:

  1. Cast Scholar of the Lost Trove while Orvar, the All-Form is on the field.
  2. Scholar ETB cast a bounce spell from graveyard targeting Scholar.
  3. This triggers Orvar and makes a token copy of scholar.
  4. Return to step 2 for all bounce spells in your graveyard. If there are no bounce spells proceed to step 5.
  5. Cast a big payoff artifact like Caged Sun or Aetherflux Reservoir to end the cycle.

So in this stage of revision where I am ruthlessly cutting high cmc cards, I will probably not cut Scholar of the Lost Trove because it can be such a huge payoff card. It also makes you less likely to care about tossing your big artifacts in the bin during your BFOF because you might be able to get them back later with this card.

Feeziks on Mono Blue Bouncers

2 months ago

I like Spellseeker and Virtue of Knowledge thanks for the tips there, I think I would cut Storm of Saruman for one, kind of between Circuit Mender or Man-o'-War for the other cut

Azoth2099 on Mono Blue Bouncers

2 months ago

Feeziks

Hey dude! Spellseeker was just reprinted in Commander Masters, and it's price has dropped from $25-$30 to ~$10. Micromancer hits some solid targets in this list as well. Virtue of Knowledge from the upcoming Wilds of Eldraine set seems pretty good here as a backup Panharmonicon too.

Peace!

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