Walking Ballista
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander 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
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Walking Ballista

Artifact Creature — Construct

This enters with X +1/+1 counters on this creature.

: Put a +1/+1 counter on this.

Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: This deals 1 damage to any target (creature, player, planeswalker or battle).

SaberTech on Animar enthusiasts!

1 week ago

The value of Trinket Mage really depends on what else you have for it to target besides the Ballista. I did run it at one point but that was back when I was also running Skullclamp, which I think is the main inclusion that makes Trinket Mage worth considering. If you are also running a number of cheap mana rocks like Chrome Mox and Mana Vault that can also help justify the inclusion. If you face a lot of graveyard decks and feel compelled to put in some artifact-based graveyard hate then that could be another reason to run Trinket Mage. It can also tutor for artifact lands, but generally you want as many of Animar's lands as possible to produce at least two different types of mana so the single-colour artifact lands aren't the best to include while the dual-colour artifact lands enter tapped, which you also want to avoid your lands doing if you can.

The reason why Transit Mage makes the cut despite also only having a few targets is because:

Total mana cost for the line: RU + 4 life.

That line is way more mana efficient than the old line that required you to tutor up Spellseeker, have the Seeker tutor Neoform and then you Neoform the Seeker into Ancestral Statue. Transit Mage basically lets you get the same result for that stage in the line for just one blue mana, and it keeps the line to only using creatures so there are less commonly-used counterspells that can interrupt it.

greyninja on Animar enthusiasts!

1 week ago

SaberTech super appreciate the input!

I would not have thought about Shield-Wall Sentinel to find Drift of Phantasms. Interesting strat right there. Helps find the win for sure.

Trinket Mage could be in interesting include as well, to find Walking Ballista(?)

SaberTech on Animar enthusiasts!

2 weeks ago

Now that Animar has Transit Mage, some of the cEDH builds are running Shield-Wall Sentinel and Drift of Phantasms to use as parts of a chain that ends with getting both Ancestral Statue and Walking Ballista.

Starts with Animar having two counters on it already:

Transit Mage -> tutor for Phyrexian Metamorph -> Metamorph copies Transit Mage and Tutors for Ancestral Statue -> Cast and bounce the Statue a bunch of times to get Animar's counter count to over twice your opponents' combined life total -> Cast Statue and bounce Metamorph -> Cast Metamorph copying the Mage to tutor Shield-Wall Sentinel -> Cast the Sentinel to tutor Drift of Phantasms -> Transmute Drift of Phantasms to tutor Imperial Recruiter -> Cast the Recruiter to tutor up Walking Ballista to win the game.

Total Mana requirements: UUUR1 + 4 life.

I've also been testing out Transplant Theorist as an alternative Transit Mage target for when I already have Statue in hand and need a way to dig for Walking Ballista. The Theorist can dig through the deck with Ancestral Statue and can also net value if you happen to be bouncing a bunch of your mana rocks with Hullbreaker Horror. There have been times where blue mana was a bit tight and I found the Theorist more convenient than trying to work through the long spell chain I outlined above.

DemonDragonJ on Life Springs Eternal

1 month ago

I contemplated putting both Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista into this deck, but that combo is too cliche, at this point, and I also would like to have put both Fight Rigging and Rabble Rousing into this deck, but I was not able to make room, for those cards, unfortunately.

Profet93, thank you, very much, and I certainly would be interested to hear any suggestions that you have to offer!

Sliverguy420 on Black/Green Green Triskelion Deck - Copy

1 month ago

Walking Ballista is a strictly better Triskelion

DreadKhan on EDH NecroPotentence

1 month ago

I have an abiding fondness for Necropotence, and I've always been curious if there isn't some crazy things Asmodeus can do, so thanks for posting!

Good Old Gary is a good life gain source in Black, and technically you can reanimate him. People often use it as a win con, so if you're worried you might play it late game and just kill everyone it's a real concern and may not be your cup of tea if you want a more Commander dependent strategy.

If you want a backup Crypt Rats there is also Thrashing Wumpus, which can be activated a couple times. BTW Crypt Rats REALLY likes Gift of Doom in my experience, B to board wipe can give you a lot of time to fart around, and Gift of Doom is one of the hardest to interact with protection effects if you use it's Morph ability to attach it.

I'm not sure it really matters, but I think Elixir of Immortality is better than Feldon's Cane.

I have done some reading on Necrotic Ooze combos (mostly for Meren decks), you can combine Necrotic Ooze in play with Phyrexian Devourer and something like Triskelion or Walking Ballista to win on the spot... Since those work by similarly only applying the activated ability (and not any Static abilities) your idea should work too to draw cards for very cheap (or free with your Skirge Familiar).

I don't think I've ever used it in an EDH deck yet, but Strands of Night is probably worth a look if you like reanimating stuff. I think the issue is I have no mono-black decks, it's much better in mono-black.

Your Feast of Sanity might like Sickening Dreams?

If you don't mind being in Esper, Zur the Enchanter *f-etch* is a great Necropotence based Commander, probably more powerful than Asmodeus, but more of a 'kill on sight' option as a result.

Cloudy2024 on RosieScale

2 months ago

where are your fetch lands and Walking Ballista?

TheVectornaut on Rise of the Griffins

6 months ago

While I like the idea of the current enchantment combo, I don't know that it's really necessary. Privileged Position already protects your stuff without the need to get out 2 cards. Further, turning all of your lands into enchantments opens you up to instantly losing the game to something like Spring Cleaning, although players are more likely to play mass wipes that will also destroy or exile their permanents due to Enchanted Evening's symmetry. Speaking of, you can try to take advanatge of that symmetry in other ways like playing Azorius First-Wing as an unblockable griffin, assuming you don't mind going into blue. Otherwise, I'd still try to upgrade the griffins here to be a little faster and more impactful. Diving Griffin and Resplendent Griffin have the potential to be better than Sunspire Griffin, depending on the final build. Fearless Fledgling and Griffin Rider are both aggressive options to shore up the 2 slot in a way I think would be more impactful than Crashing Drawbridge or the currently underwhelming Pearl Medallion. Finally, Wanted Griffin may be better than Senate Griffin at 4, again depending on what your game plan ends up being. Mutavault and Metallic Mimic are some less budget friendly options that could help the tribe's limited card pool.

As for anthems, I usually prefer the 2 cost options to the 3, although I do like Always Watching. Honor of the Pure is the vanilla option while Rally the Ranks or even Obelisk of Urd could fit in a tribal shell. One thing I thought of while looking at the high number of white pips making the Medallion worse was that you could lean into that and go for a mono-white devotion build. Some anthems like Flowering of the White Tree and Benalish Marshal already fit well in such a deck. You'd definitely want a playset of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and some sort of payoff for the extra mana like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Walking Ballistafoil, or whatever other bomb you prefer. You'd also want something to play on 1 for that strategy. War Falcon has some synergy with Griffin Rider, Esper Sentinel is a generically powerful draw engine, and Weathered Wayfarer is a classic way to find Nykthos. War Falcon also brings to mind the idea of leaning more into broad flying support like Sephara, Sky's Blade and Rally of Wings, although I acknowledge going down that path could severely dilute the tribal identity of the deck. One final approach I can think of is pivoting to focus on lifegain to use the Griffin Aerie in your maybeboard. You'd definitely need cheaper ways to gain life than True Conviction, especially since I think it's already one of the weaker cards in the deck. The reality is that you'd probably be nudged towards splitting the griffins with angels to take advanatge of Angelic Accord, Bishop of Wings, Speaker of the Heavens, and even Archangel of Thune. Outside of that, the options are more limited. Maybe mass lifelink could be made cheaper with Metallic Mimic plus Envoy of the Ancestors or Abzan Battle Priest. This is the only route where I actually see Path of Bravery being worth it.

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