Combos Browse all Suggest
- Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista
- Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + Walking Ballista
- Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Pitiless Plunderer + Walking Ballista
- Corpse Knight + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista
- Blasting Station + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista
- Altar of Dementia + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista
- Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder + Walking Ballista
- Archangel of Thune + Walking Ballista
- Greater Good + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista
- Archangel of Thune + Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder + Walking Ballista
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.
: 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).
DMFF on
Aerith Throws Infinite Chairs
4 weeks ago
slvstrChung of course!
Walking Ballista needs to be in the GY with Agatha's Soul Cauldron and Aerith Gainsborough on the field.
- Activate Soul Cauldron, exiling the Walking Ballista and putting the +1/+1 counter on Aerith.
- Aerith now has a +1/+1 counter and has Walking Ballista's activated abilities due to Soul Cauldron. Activate the Ballista's ability to remove a +1/+1 counter from Aerith to do 1 damage to any target.
- Aerith has lifelink. You will gain 1 life, which triggers her effect to give her another +1/+1 counter.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 infinitely!
Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions regarding the deck!
SaberTech on Animar enthusiasts!
2 months 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:
- Finding Ancestral Statue is more important to the deck. There are already a number of ways to get to the Ballista.
- Being able to go Imperial Recruiter -> Phyrexian Metamorph -> Transit Mage -> Ancestral Statue -> Rack up counters on animar then bounce Metamorph -> Metamorph copying Recruiter to get Walking Ballista is a super mana efficient line when Animar starts with just 2 counters.
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!
2 months 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 months 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
2 months 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
2 months ago
Walking Ballista is a strictly better Triskelion
DreadKhan on
EDH NecroPotentence
3 months 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.
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