Witching Well
Set Price Alerts

Combos Browse all Suggest

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
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Witching Well

Artifact

When Witching Well enters the battlefield, scry 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom of your library and the rest on top in any order.)

, Sacrifice Witching Well: Draw two cards.

legendofa on

11 months ago

Looking at a meta Dimir Pioneer deck, https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pioneer-rogues#paper the new Faerie Mastermind has found a place, and Kaito Shizuki and Into the Story have slots. (Links not enabled, I apologize.)

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pioneer-mono-blue-spirits#paper has Curious Obsession and Combat Research.

Expressive Iteration got banned in Pioneer for being too efficient at creating and maintaining a hand state.

You had mentioned the mulligan rule earlier. I'm not an expert on hypergeometric calculations, but that is an accepted part of play at all levels, and goes a long way to minimizing the rate of unplayable hands. How does Shota's deck perform if you assume one mulligan on a hand with 0-1 or 5-7 lands, keeping all hands with 2-4 lands?

My thoughts of Witching Well and Opt were more to demonstrate that in particular has the ability to fix mana in hand at any budget. I didn't really make that clear in my post. If the tournament decks aren't running these cards, it's because they're running more efficient options.

Magic is absolutely a tough nut to crack, and I don't pretend to have all, or most, or any answers outside of quick searches of tournament lists and results and my own experience. The topic of balancing all the needs of your deck--mana, card draw, threats, responses--has had literal books written about it by high-level professionals, and then all the advice changes every few years. What works now might not work two years from now, and today's weird jank draft filler becomes tomorrow's top-tier combo piece.

One more thought, and this is my personal response to your earlier statement that "Most people would call you crazy if your "fun hobby " is fun 75% of the time." In baseball, if you succeed as a batter by getting on base 40% of the time, that's very notable. At the time of this writing, in the MLB, only fourteen people out of over 1,000 have an On-Base Percentage over .400, and exactly one person, Luis Arráez of the Miami Marlins, has an OBP of .500. So a 75% "fun" rate isn't necessarily grounds for craziness.

Again, if you decide you're not having fun and want to pack it in, I wish you the best of luck. If you want to stick around and chat without actually playing, please do. If you simply want to make a clean break, I hope you find the hobby that brings you lasting satisfaction and fulfillment.

legendofa on

1 year ago

BSP If you're not having fun anymore, and you believe it's time for you to step away, then I completely support you, and wish you good luck in whatever the future brings you. A hobby shouldn't feel like a chore.

But for whoever reads this later, anecdotally, I haven't had the overall experience of a 25% failure rate for mana, even in ramp-shy mono-blue or blue/red decks. I've had that problem with individual decks, and sometimes it just doesn't resolve to my satisfaction, and the deck comes apart. But more often than not, even in low-budget super-casual decks, all it takes is a little tweaking.

To use this deck as an example, for smoothing out the mana, I would go down to 25 lands, drop some of the more restricted cards like Hypnotic Sprite, and add some one-mana cards and some draw. If you have a playset each of Opt and Witching Well, two inexpensive commons, you will see far more lands over the course of a game if you keep coming up short on lands. With those same two playsets, if you're consistently mana flooding, you can stem the flood and find the cards you actually need.

While I agree that the mana system introduces a layer of randomness that most games don't have, managing the randomness is an essential part of the game. I believe that almost all card games, from Uno to Hearts, Go Fish, cribbage, poker, whatever, are ultimately about controlling the randomness of a shuffled deck and predicting the advantages and disadvantages of other people, and in Magic, I suggest that the deck builder has a unique level of control over these factors. (I'm trying to lay out my opinions without being preachy or patronizing. It's not my intent to come across like that.)

Again, your presence is your choice, and you know when you're ready to walk away. Take care, have fun in whatever you choose to do, and feel free to stop by and chat whenever you want. Cheers!

Jack32226 on Rot and Ruin (Muldrotha EDH)

2 years ago

Thanks for commenting, Lord_of_Cardboard!

This deck would do exceptionally well against a Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger deck. This is for the same reason that cards like Jace's Archivist do so well in the deck: if you have have Muldrotha on the battlefield, any cards you discard might as well still be in your hand cause you can simply replay them from your graveyard. If anything, an opposing Kroxa player is almost helping you by disrupting your other opponents' hands.

As for a budget version of the deck, here's some advice on budget options and replacements. Just note that this is advice specific to my Muldrotha deck, i.e., advice for the big mana and big X-spell strategy. If you'd rather play a more typical creature-based, swing-to-kill type deck, there may be better Muldrotha lists to look at.

The mana base makes up a large portion of the deck's budget, and I would leave that mostly up to your own discretion. Just keep in mind that fetch lands like Evolving Wilds and slow fetches like Bad River are good for being replayed every turn with Muldrotha. Also, for a budget version of the deck, it's important to run more basics than I do since you'll probably need to fetch more with your ramp. Cycle lands like Lonely Sandbar, Tranquil Thicket, and Barren Moor are fantastic, especially with Life from the Loam. Some other good options:

Which brings me to another point: if I had to pick one somewhat expensive card that's worth putting in a budget Muldrotha deck, it's this one. It's a one-card value engine, giving you card draw, mill, and lands. And depending on what utility lands you choose to run, it can do a whole lot more. And if you're worried about Kroxa in your meta, Life from the Loam is a great counter to it, allowing you to fill your hand with lands to discard.

Now to address key cards for the deck's "big mana" strategy. Important cards for generating a lot of mana include Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Crypt Ghast, and Nyxbloom Ancient. You could just replace these cards with normal ramp; casting X-spells for X=10 is still good and easy to accomplish without these cards. If that's unsatisfying for you, you could consider options like Zendikar Resurgent and Mana Reflection. Unfortunately there aren't many great cheap options for producing a lot of mana. This is an important part of the deck though, so it's up to you if it's worth spending some extra money on it.

To avoid this comment being any more lengthy than it already is, here's an extensive list of some budget alternatives for the deck. The great thing about Muldrotha is that being able to replay removal makes a lot of sub-par removal actually pretty good, so it's pretty budget friendly.

Win-Conditions: What's in the deck isn't too expensive, but here's some cheaper options.

Removal:

Draw / Mill:

Tutors:

Ramp:

Control and other good stuff:

If you have any other questions about budget options, let me know. I'm always happy to help!

WalbenQuakeblade on Jhoira cEDH

2 years ago

In- Mnemonic Sphere Out- Witching Well

I feel this is an easy one to one swap. Where Witching Well has helped in the past scrying away cards we don't want or finding much needed lands or artifacts Mnemonic Sphere will give us an option to draw a card when we need. The big reason for the switch though is Well was mostly run for both the scry alongside the draw 2 it provided for now Mnemonic Sphere will provided a draw instead of scry along with the same draw potential but at a reduced cost of .

Ill actively be looking at this swap in games and potentially finding another slot to place Well back into.

Corrosive_Cat on Temur Midrange [Pauper]

2 years ago

Afraid to say that Bonder's Ornament’s soon to be banned - I know it’s not quite a replacement, but I really like Witching Well. Great for early turns, perfectly fine for later, and it has an ETB effect for Cascade!

Corrosive_Cat on Machine Uprising

2 years ago

Neat! I’m a big fan of Arsenal Thresher, it’s a criminally underrated card I think. If you can cheapen it at all with something like Etherium Sculptor, even better.

Also Witching Well is a nifty lil card, worth considering.

Corrosive_Cat on Leonin Squire Bant Shenanigans

2 years ago

I'm a big fan of Witching Well - perhaps two might fit in here? Could replace Preordain; sucks to lose its draw, but there's already a bunch of other draw in here.

Kukkakaali on Tuhmeliinit Cube

2 years ago

Version 2.5. No more oyster: - Jaya's Greeting + Young Pyromancer - Chandra's Pyreling + Risk Factor - Chandra's Spitfire + Heartfire Immolator - Spelleater Wolverine + Warlord's Fury

- Aven Eternal + Blink of an Eye - Giant Oyster + Talrand's Invocation - No Escape + Vapor Snag - Witching Well + Mistral Singer - Of One Mind + Peek

Version 2.6. Kaldheim and Strixhaven boosters: - Colossus Hammer + Access Tunnel - Camaraderie + Fall of the Impostor - Cliffhaven Kitesail + Hall of Oracles

- Kin-Tree Invocation + Binding the Old Gods - Boneyard Lurker + Infuse with Vitality - Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner + Moritte of the Frost - Incubation / Incongruity + Quandrix Cultivator - Spellheart Chimera + Prismari Command - Final Payment + Humiliate - Zealous Persecution + Killian, Ink Duelist - Kaya, Bane of the Dead + Closing Statement

- Parhelion Patrol + Glorious Protector - Oppressive Rays + Doomskar - Pouncing Lynx + Codespell Cleric - Inspiring Captain + Leonin Lightscribe

- Concentrate + Behold the Multiverse - Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor + Saw It Coming

- Fleshbag Marauder + Brackish Trudge - Blight-Breath Catoblepas + Sheoldred, Whispering One - Audacious Thief + Unwilling Ingredient - Hagra Constrictor + Tergrid, God of Fright  Flip - Blood Beckoning + Go Blank - Murder + Poison the Cup - Lazotep Reaver + Umbral Juke - Herald of the Dreadhorde + Feed the Serpent

- Inordinate Rage + Infuriate - Heightened Reflexes + Claim the Firstborn - Furious Rise + Tormentor's Helm - Syr Carah, the Bold + Breakneck Berserker - Fire Servant + Rune of Speed

- Ranger's Guile + Snakeskin Veil - Reclaim the Wastes + Big Play - Scute Mob + Dragonsguard Elite - Loathsome Chimera + Regrowth

Load more
Have (1) oyianakis
Want (1) jw560211_magic