Usefulness of the Leylines?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on March 24, 2013, 4:21 p.m. by acbooster
How useful are the leylines such as Leyline of Anticipation , Leyline of Punishment , Leyline of the Void , and the like in an EDH environment? Which ones are the best? Which ones are best left out?
Heh, then I guess it's a good thing I got the Leyline of Anticipation in a trade not too long ago for my Bruna, Light of Alabaster deck.
I can see the Leyline of Lifeforce being a sideboard card for a creature-heavy deck to place in against control.
March 24, 2013 4:32 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #4
Leyline of Vitality and Leyline of the Meek have niche roles to play in certain decks. Meek is another anthem effect if you're going for a supersized token swarm with force multipliers, and Vitality actually can do some good work in a very creature-heavy deck. You'd be surprised how many people forget about the extra toughness and make poor blocking decisions, and if (if) the deck is built right, having a constant trickle of life can be subtly powerful.
Still, those two are definitely both niche cards - not something you'd throw in most decks.
March 24, 2013 4:36 p.m.
The only problem with Leyline of the Meek is that it doesn't help if you're playing another token deck since it's a global effect.
March 24, 2013 4:40 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
Although I see your argument, MagnorCriol, I don't think Leyline of Vitality is playable because I can't think of a situation in which I'd run it instead of something more flexible and relevant. Hell, I'd take another ramp spell over Leyline of Vitality .
Leyline of the Meek is probably the more useful of the two, but I also tend to favor a combo-oriented (or at least interaction-oriented) approach to token decks. Anthems are a dime a dozen and usually not worth it unless used en masse. Even then, the deck space you'd need to devote to that strategy would be better invested in other support and utility cards.
March 24, 2013 4:42 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #7
See, for me, the sort of token deck I'd be interested in building is exactly the sort of deck where you'd want Meek - just crammed full of as many token generators and as many anthems as possible.Sort of a "Let's go all-in on numbers and anthems and see where it gets us".
I'm also squarely in the Johnny/Timmy side of the demographics, so I'm the sort of guy to build to theme or flavor first, in sheer contravention of actual power level.
Running another ramp spell is likely to be logically better, but once I've gotten a few rampers in the deck I'm probably just going to go for other spells. (Unless I'm building a deck of ramp spells, which I've done as well. That was...interesting.)
Epochalyptik says... #2
Leyline of Anticipation is by far the best of all the leylines. It offers a strong advantage to blue decks no matter what the opponent is playing.
Leyline of Punishment , Leyline of Sanctity , and Leyline of the Void are conditionally useful.
Leyline of Lifeforce , Leyline of Lightning , Leyline of Vitality , Leyline of the Meek , and Leyline of Singularity are, in my opinion, unplayable.
March 24, 2013 4:29 p.m.