Walking Ballista

Artifact Creature — Construct

Walking Ballita enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.

: Put a +1/+1 counter on Walking Ballista.

Remove a +1/+1 counter from Walking Ballista: It deals 1 damage to target creature, player or planeswalker.

Discussion (46)

wallisface on Colorless Etched Tron 2021

3 days ago

PoisonLexy I had a look on MtgGoldfish to see what the other tron decks are running for lands. Green-Tron is running 17 lands, but they make up for it with over 1/3rd of their deck dedicated to digging for lands ( Ancient Stirrings , Sylvan Scrying , Chromatic Sphere , Chromatic Star , Expedition Map ). Eldrazi-Tron, on the other hand, runs 24 lands - and that archtype much more closely resembles your gameplan (they just run Expedition Map ).

The problem with the “Etched people” is that most of them do almost nothing unless you can generate 5 colors of mana, which your deck is going to really struggle to do. You can’t rely on Steel Overseer because the opponent will often kill it well before it gets a chance to tap. Also the only creature that needs the counters is Etched Oracle , so feels like its synergy is low.

It just really feels like the Etched creatures require a massive amount of setup for very little gain…

I think a strong potential avenue for you to go down would be a mono-blue tron-artifact build. That would let you still run Etched Champion , and actually make it threatening using Cranial Plating or Ghostfire Blade . You’d be able to grab whatever you needed with Whir of Invention which’d mean you could run a single copies of Blightsteel Colossus and Platinum Emperion . You’d keep the planeswalkers, but be better suited for providing a consistent creature-threat, with blue providing value cards like Sai, Master Thopterist , and Master of Etherium , while the tron lands can create large Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista . You wouldn’t need to be messing around for 5 colors, and the deck can additionally function alright if you missed assembling tron

unstable_anomaly on Oswald's Combo Pain (cEDH)

4 days ago

Two mana artifacts that may have some additional use: Doubling Cube / Fellwar Stone / Gold Myr / Liquimetal Torque / Ornithopter of Paradise / Robe of Stars / Scroll Rack / Isochron Scepter .

You might also like: Aven Mindcensor / Mirage Mirror / Null Brooch / Geier Reach Sanitarium / Dispatch / Umbral Mantle .

Heliod, Sun-Crowned goes infinite with Walking Ballista . You can tutor for either with Recruiter of the Guard .

moonlitmana on Proliferating Proliferaters

5 days ago

zapyourtumor thank you for the suggestions! Hardened Scales , Hangarback Walker , and Walking Ballista look like really cool cards that I'd love to test out, next time I order cards lol I like the last two tho bc they're X cost yeah i realized Pop Quiz is bad too lol

multimedia on Hercules23

5 days ago

Hey Hercules23, I think with Zombie tribal it's better to utilize Scarab with your opponent's creatures rather than your own. Exiling your own Zombies to embalm seems counter productive since Zombies want to rely on the graveyard and the Zombie combos require Zombies coming back from the graveyard. Cards such as Patriarch's Bidding and Zombie Apocalypse are powerful tribal reanimation that has less of an effect when you don't have Zombies in your graveyard because you exiled them. Exiling your opponents creatures and turning them into Zombies is an added bonus for Zombie tribal.

Orb, Dementia are powerful affects if you want to use Scarab against your opponents as long as your opponents are playing creatures. I would only play Orb though if you also include ways to recur some noncreature permanents/spells which I suggested some in my last comment. The only reason I suggested to cut Grounds is because it only really has an effect on Scarab which is too minimal. If you want to keep Grounds for Scarab keep it; after all it's only a one drop therefore realistically you will always be able to cast it.

Scarab is slow reanimation being a five drop that you then have to pay additional mana to embalm thus to improve reanimation you could include some faster ways to reanimate:

• Entomb and Reanimate is as fast as you can get.
• Razaketh, the Foulblooded would improve reanimation and he can be a sac outlet with Zombies to tutor especially with Gravecrawler.
• I would only play Mikaeus if he's part of a combo such as Walking Ballista + Carrion Feeder . Mikaeus without a combo is a subpar reanimation target.

unstable_anomaly on Full Metal Alchemy (Osgir, the Reconstructor)

1 week ago

Hey hairy-wombat thanks for stopping by, really appreciate the compliment and suggestions.

You make an excellent point about Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter . TBH I think I may have overlooked the fact that they can both tutor Walking Ballista . If I remember correctly I think they were both in the first draft of the deck, but I ended up taking them out for two reasons...

1. I opted for some larger artifact creatures because it was fun to reconstruct multiple copies and then swing for the win.

2. Winning with the same win condition over and over again can be somewhat boring in my opinion.

That being said I have tuned the deck quite a bit since the first draft, and the more I tune it, the more it becomes a combo heavy deck. I've also added quite a few smaller creatures in place of the heavy hitters which does make your suggestions even more appealing. If my math is right it looks like there's currently 9 targets for Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter respectively. Being able to flicker them a few times with Eldrazi Displacer would also be pretty spicy. All things considered I think you've definitely convinced me to take another look at both of these, but I'm curious what you would cut to make room for them?

As far as Heliod, Sun-Crowned is concerned I don't have any lifegain or +1/+1 counter strategies in the deck, so without Walking Ballista or a way to tutor for it, Heliod is just a dead draw.

ahthornev2 on Death & Taxes

1 week ago

Hey blessrain -- Walking Ballista is definitely at it's most fair in this deck but it serves a few cool use cases. It has a unique role in the deck where it can act like Umezawa's Jitte w/ counters and ping off some creatures or act as just a bear that can send a few points of damage at the opponent if it is about to be removed. In both cases it is pretty solid, mono-white can use the extra reach sometimes.

a) Tutor target for both Recruiter of the Guard and Ranger-Captain of Eos , and also Ranger of Eos that is in the maybe board. It's usually the best target for Ranger-Captain if the game is going to go long at all or I have some excess mana that I can feed into the Ballista the next turn. Would likely add Ranger of Eos if I was going into the Heliod combo just to maximize on ways to find Ballista.

b) Can help mana denial strategy. Pinging off x/1 creatures is really helpful when half of the payoffs in this deck involve removing the opponent's resources. Pinging their Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise leading into an Armageddon / Wasteland to choke out certain colours or an early 3 drop is exactly what we want to do to maximize our disruption.

c) Goes well with the fast mana draws, whether it is Mana Crypt or City of Traitors , Ancient Tomb , getting an early Ballista against creature decks is great for the reason described above, plus it can be a mana sink later while fitting the curve early.

I've been looking to add more +1/+1 counter synergy as well, both Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Luminarch Aspirant are underrated and there are a few other cards I have been looking at too. I think in a slower meta including the Heliod, Sun-Crowned combo is a very valid build, too. Heliod is just a little bit weak on his own but it is a good card to slam early off a fast mana start. Ballista is just a good enough card on its own that I have really embraced playing it in a deck like this!

blessrain on Death & Taxes

1 week ago

Could you explain Walking Ballista ? I don't quite understand it's place in a deck like this.

Thanks!

RaidenShogun69 on Hulk Ballista

1 week ago

Cogmancer: the combo works by using Walking Ballista 's last counter to deal a point of damage to itself.