I see Lunge as decent-to-great in Skullbriar. If he's sniped, you don't have to fear him hitting the GY since you can play that and cast him for 2, saving your black and green mana for pump spells or tutoring or whatever you do in that deck. (What does it take to bump up the general tax again? I'm mostly saying I'd like to avoid it as long as possible.)
The general tax bumps each time your general gets sent to the command zone. And spending 2 mana, 2 life, and a card to get just one more swing off of skullbriar before you have to recast it (which would give it haste any way), seems pretty bad in my book.
And Zork is a famous 1980 text adventure, which involved the main character being eaten by these shapeless creatures known as grues. The phrase "You have been eaten by a grue" is somewhat popular in geek pop culture.
Why do people always mention Lunge but never Stir the Grave? It's a great card for reanimating cheap utility creatures. It's Unearth#2 in my Sygg deck.
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"Gotta have opposites dark and light, light and dark in painting. It's like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come." -Bob Ross
Tradewind rider is a pretty sweet, old school card. There's lots of cards that synergy nicely with it - such as any card that locks people down (eg possessed portal, stasis, etc) and is nasty with intruder alarm.
I need to get my hands on one of these to see if it's really as useful as I suspect it is. What really attracts me is the fact that it reanimates itself, then makes you sacrifice a creature. So you can pay BB as many times as you like during your upkeep, triggering effects like Warstorm Surge and Vicious Shadows every time as it hops in and out of the graveyard. It doesn't have haste, so it can't attack right away if you sacrifice another creature and leave it on the battlefield, but if that's what I'm doing with it it's probably not for attacking but for the purpose of something like Greater Good where it's better to have a 4/1 (bigger if you have artifacts) than whatever smaller creature I sent to the grave.
Ooh, and Quagmire Druid looks nice in those BGx "sacrifice stuff" decks, too.
I get a lot of use out of this in my Zombies deck. I'm not even making crazy plays with it (good catch on Greater Good!) but it's usually amazing anyway. It's great to pull out to defend yourself - having typically 5-6 power and being returnable is great. It also takes huge chunks of life from people. I often have a meaningless token from Kher Keep or something like a Fleshbag Marauder that I would want to kill and recur anyway. I like Gigapede-style cards that can really force people to decide if they want to trade big monsters out. When I can kill your Sun Titan and pay BB and a creature token to do it, I will do that trade every day.
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Tradewind rider is a pretty sweet, old school card. There's lots of cards that synergy nicely with it - such as any card that locks people down (eg possessed portal, stasis, etc) and is nasty with intruder alarm.
I love Tradewind Rider. I run it in a token deck with a heavy emphasis on tapping things and it's done some nasty things for me.
To contribute, I'm going to bring up something I've posted before but hadn't had a chance to play with yet. Now that I have, I want to confirm that Rushing River is a super inexpensive (in terms of both mana and money) answer card that gives you something to do with late game land draws that might otherwise not impact the game too much. Bouncing two nonlands for 3 is pretty solid value.
On a completely unrelated note, has anyone tried out Soldevi Adnate or Priest of Yawgmoth? They're pretty similar effects and seem like they could provide a pretty serious ritual effect. There are also a ton of fairly high-costed artifact creatures that don't mind dying - see Wurmcoil Engine, Triskelion, or pretty much any of the ones that bring in a bunch of tokens.
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I've only seen one person mention this card and it was back in November. Buried Ruin is pretty amazing considering the number of artifacts I run.
Love Buried Ruin. It's on the very short list of cards that I consider for just about every deck I make. On a similar note, though it might still be too new to be really hidden, Haunted Fengraf is pretty solid in the right deck. I run it in Jaya, who runs ~10 creatures, of which 3 return on their own, so I can frequently recur exactly what [card=scourge of kher ridges]I want. Even if that's not the case, it (and most other random effects) should always give you something worthwhile because you shouldn't have terrible cards in your deck.
When the entire cost of running it or Buried Ruin is that you have one additional colorless land in your deck, it's hard to justify not including them in many mono or bi-colored decks, and there are arguments for some tri-colored decks as well.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Taj-Nar Swordsmith : waaay worse than stoneforge, but still deserves a mention. skullclamp is always worth tutoring for, afterall. Mine Excavation : and hey, when your skullclamp eventually gets blown up, get it back! and maybe something else, hopefully. seemingly good in monowhite where card advantage can be tough to generate Skeletal Scrying : I'm sure alot of people know about this card, but for the few that have overlooked it, it's sweet. Grasslands : I'm not sure if there is a whole cycle of these things, but they are better than Terramorphic/evolving wilds, and can be a good budget option for a land base. Scatter the Seeds : Instant speed is where it's at in token themed decks, and this can really catch opponents off guard for that lethal overrun.
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Grasslands : I'm not sure if there is a whole cycle of these things, but they are better than Terramorphic/evolving wilds, and can be a good budget option for a land base.
I'm not sure they actually are better than Terramorphic and Wilds unless you're running shocks or duals, and then it's not really a budget manabase. If you have a compulsive need to hide information to the point where those come in tapped instead of the land they find or you have such stringent color requirements that you need to postpone fetching until the last second, there's an argument, but those sound more like personal problems. I'd rather have the increased flexibility of Terramorphic or Wilds in a 3+ color deck and wouldn't run any of them in a two color deck. To each their own, though. I'll admit to being a fan of the art as well.
I'm posting a lot in this thread today.
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I'm not sure they actually are better than Terramorphic and Wilds unless you're running shocks or duals, and then it's not really a budget manabase. If you have a compulsive need to hide information to the point where those come in tapped instead of the land they find or you have such stringent color requirements that you need to postpone fetching until the last second, there's an argument, but those sound more like personal problems. I'd rather have the increased flexibility of Terramorphic or Wilds in a 3+ color deck and wouldn't run any of them in a two color deck. To each their own, though. I'll admit to being a fan of the art as well.
I'm posting a lot in this thread today.
FWIW they're slightly worse than Terramorphic or Wilds if someone has an Urborg out too.
I'm not sure they actually are better than Terramorphic and Wilds unless you're running shocks or duals, and then it's not really a budget manabase
this actually made me laugh. no arguement here
my opinion doesnt change on the fact that they are better than evolving wilds/terra, though. fetching duel lands has proven to be way more valuable to me from my experiences, especially in a 3 colored deck.
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I'm not sure they actually are better than Terramorphic and Wilds unless you're running shocks or duals, and then it's not really a budget manabase. If you have a compulsive need to hide information to the point where those come in tapped instead of the land they find or you have such stringent color requirements that you need to postpone fetching until the last second, there's an argument, but those sound more like personal problems. I'd rather have the increased flexibility of Terramorphic or Wilds in a 3+ color deck and wouldn't run any of them in a two color deck. To each their own, though. I'll admit to being a fan of the art as well.
I'm posting a lot in this thread today.
Another way that they are worse than Wilds/Expanse is that you can't play them and crack them in the same turn, giving you less control over Landfall and less ability to abuse them with Crucible of Worlds/Life from the Loam/etc + bonus land drops.
I've considered them in a Monoblack deck, where I run Crucible + Rings of Brighthearth, and frequently multi-clamp Bloodghast, and run all 4 Black Fetches and Terramorphic/Wilds, but they just aren't good enough. At least they beat the Panoramas though.
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I've played those lands in 5-c decks where every land in the manabase is nonbasic. You've got 10 duals, 5 Shards lands, 10 filters, about 6 good rainbow lands, 10 fetches and at that point, you're looking at stuff like these to round it out. Waiting a turn to grab a dual land is usually worth it if you're playing a really high-powered 5-c deck.
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Even in my Geth deck, where I should have Amulet of Vigor out every game, to the point of making sure I tutor for it early...I have not gotten around to testing those Mirage fetchlands.
One or two is usually pretty bad, but if you have 10 duals and need to support your colors pretty exactly, then it's good. If you want to cast Cruel Ultimatum, Palliation Accord and Thornscape Battlemage in the same deck, then you need all the dual-fetching you can get.
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Another way that they are worse than Wilds/Expanse is that you can't play them and crack them in the same turn, giving you less control over Landfall and less ability to abuse them with Crucible of Worlds/Life from the Loam/etc + bonus land drops.
I've considered them in a Monoblack deck, where I run Crucible + Rings of Brighthearth, and frequently multi-clamp Bloodghast, and run all 4 Black Fetches and Terramorphic/Wilds, but they just aren't good enough. At least they beat the Panoramas though.
Keep in mind, the lands they get enter untapped by default, which is better than the expanse/wild. Essentially, you still get to use your lands the next turn.
That said, with lands having such a small selection of cards, and even smaller for useable ones, and then even smaller for utility lands over mana lands, the Top 50 list really has little to compete with itself in the land category compared to the colors.
And even then, the number of some of those utility lands that I never see astounds me. (Primarily thinking about Winding Canyons, it's on the top 50, I never see it. Anywhere. And it's insanely good. It's really stupid how strong it is.)
I've recently had great success with Cackling Counterpart. Instant-speed clone effects seem to be quite the blowout when opponents are trying to deal with some of your problem creatures, as they aren't usually expected.
Asking out a girl is like trying to cast a first turn Necropotence. Sometimes the other player will have the Force of Will to say no. You shouldn't let that stop you from trying it.
I'm in love with equinox. Sheldon has commented that the wording is funny(wierd, not ha-ha). But, it works well, and stops a lot of decks like kalia and jhoira that rely on land wipes to win.
I am going to tear your kneecaps off and give them to a pack of wolves. Hope you like crawling for your life.
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Aww, but sinfires overzealous denouncing of the obvious is what keeps us from being drowned in "Hey I think Karmic guide is pretty good, especially with Genesis," in this thread.
Okay I'm cheating her but I just saw knowledge vault and want one. As far as I'm aware its the only card with that effect that sends the exiled cards to the graveyard if its destroyed. You can also pay 0 at anytime to get the cards so unless they have krosan grip or your hand is still too good to lose it'll get you some decent C/A. It might be good in colors that have terrible CA (I'm looking at you red) if all else fails. I'm at least going to try it out in a deck or two.
Aww, but sinfires overzealous denouncing of the obvious is what keeps us from being drowned in "Hey I think Karmic guide is pretty good, especially with Genesis," in this thread.
Personally I'd like it a lot better if posts like "Hey guys, Reveillark is so underrated and awesome!" were infracted for spam and that was it. I know Sinfire Titan gets really pissed when people post pointless stuff like that, but no need to flame someone out for it. Just report the post and be done with it.
Back to hidden gems...
I play both Predict and Foreshadow in my Sakashima deck mainly because I'm getting sick of Mirage tutors being so good as well as people that use Top and retreat it to the top of their library (and yes, I play Psychic Surgery too). I find both Predict and its almost identical cousin Foreshadow to be excellent surprises for the mana cost they are worth. They're also good when someone has a card like Oracle of Mul Daya or Future Sight out so you can nail someone guaranteed for the full two cards. Absolute worst-case scenario, they cycle for two mana.
I play both Predict and Foreshadow in my Sakashima deck mainly because I'm getting sick of Mirage tutors being so good as well as people that use Top and retreat it to the top of their library (and yes, I play Psychic Surgery too). I find both Predict and its almost identical cousin Foreshadow to be excellent surprises for the mana cost they are worth. They're also good when someone has a card like Oracle of Mul Daya or Future Sight out so you can nail someone guaranteed for the full two cards. Absolute worst-case scenario, they cycle for two mana.
I actually run them in a non-infinite Oona deck for that same reason. Also, they play so well with Lantern of Insight. You'd be surprised how many people get frustrated that everyone gets to know their draw and that you can instantly shuffle away any problem you see coming.
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The general tax bumps each time your general gets sent to the command zone. And spending 2 mana, 2 life, and a card to get just one more swing off of skullbriar before you have to recast it (which would give it haste any way), seems pretty bad in my book.
And Zork is a famous 1980 text adventure, which involved the main character being eaten by these shapeless creatures known as grues. The phrase "You have been eaten by a grue" is somewhat popular in geek pop culture.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grue_(monster)
GX Tron XG
UR Phoenix RU
GG Freyalise High Tide GG
UR Parun Counterspells RU
BB Yawgmoth Token Storm BB
WB Pestilence BW
UBUWydwyn, the Biting Gale 1v1UBU
WRWBrion Cho Aniki!! I Wanna Be Strong Like Big Brother!WRW
BRBLyzie Borden and the Thrill Kill CultBRB
GWUDerevi, Birdman TacticianGWU
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My G Yisan, the Bard of Death G deck.
My BUGWR Hermit druid BUGWR deck.
I get a lot of use out of this in my Zombies deck. I'm not even making crazy plays with it (good catch on Greater Good!) but it's usually amazing anyway. It's great to pull out to defend yourself - having typically 5-6 power and being returnable is great. It also takes huge chunks of life from people. I often have a meaningless token from Kher Keep or something like a Fleshbag Marauder that I would want to kill and recur anyway. I like Gigapede-style cards that can really force people to decide if they want to trade big monsters out. When I can kill your Sun Titan and pay BB and a creature token to do it, I will do that trade every day.
I love Tradewind Rider. I run it in a token deck with a heavy emphasis on tapping things and it's done some nasty things for me.
To contribute, I'm going to bring up something I've posted before but hadn't had a chance to play with yet. Now that I have, I want to confirm that Rushing River is a super inexpensive (in terms of both mana and money) answer card that gives you something to do with late game land draws that might otherwise not impact the game too much. Bouncing two nonlands for 3 is pretty solid value.
On a completely unrelated note, has anyone tried out Soldevi Adnate or Priest of Yawgmoth? They're pretty similar effects and seem like they could provide a pretty serious ritual effect. There are also a ton of fairly high-costed artifact creatures that don't mind dying - see Wurmcoil Engine, Triskelion, or pretty much any of the ones that bring in a bunch of tokens.
Love Buried Ruin. It's on the very short list of cards that I consider for just about every deck I make. On a similar note, though it might still be too new to be really hidden, Haunted Fengraf is pretty solid in the right deck. I run it in Jaya, who runs ~10 creatures, of which 3 return on their own, so I can frequently recur exactly what [card=scourge of kher ridges]I want. Even if that's not the case, it (and most other random effects) should always give you something worthwhile because you shouldn't have terrible cards in your deck.
When the entire cost of running it or Buried Ruin is that you have one additional colorless land in your deck, it's hard to justify not including them in many mono or bi-colored decks, and there are arguments for some tri-colored decks as well.
Mine Excavation : and hey, when your skullclamp eventually gets blown up, get it back! and maybe something else, hopefully. seemingly good in monowhite where card advantage can be tough to generate
Skeletal Scrying : I'm sure alot of people know about this card, but for the few that have overlooked it, it's sweet.
Grasslands : I'm not sure if there is a whole cycle of these things, but they are better than Terramorphic/evolving wilds, and can be a good budget option for a land base.
Scatter the Seeds : Instant speed is where it's at in token themed decks, and this can really catch opponents off guard for that lethal overrun.
Check out NoShyfts, the webcomic that I illustrate for!
GUPrime Speaker ZeganaGU
GGG Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger GGG
GWB Teneb, the Harvester GWB
I'm not sure they actually are better than Terramorphic and Wilds unless you're running shocks or duals, and then it's not really a budget manabase. If you have a compulsive need to hide information to the point where those come in tapped instead of the land they find or you have such stringent color requirements that you need to postpone fetching until the last second, there's an argument, but those sound more like personal problems. I'd rather have the increased flexibility of Terramorphic or Wilds in a 3+ color deck and wouldn't run any of them in a two color deck. To each their own, though. I'll admit to being a fan of the art as well.
I'm posting a lot in this thread today.
FWIW they're slightly worse than Terramorphic or Wilds if someone has an Urborg out too.
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this actually made me laugh. no arguement here
my opinion doesnt change on the fact that they are better than evolving wilds/terra, though. fetching duel lands has proven to be way more valuable to me from my experiences, especially in a 3 colored deck.
Check out NoShyfts, the webcomic that I illustrate for!
GUPrime Speaker ZeganaGU
GGG Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger GGG
GWB Teneb, the Harvester GWB
Another way that they are worse than Wilds/Expanse is that you can't play them and crack them in the same turn, giving you less control over Landfall and less ability to abuse them with Crucible of Worlds/Life from the Loam/etc + bonus land drops.
I've considered them in a Monoblack deck, where I run Crucible + Rings of Brighthearth, and frequently multi-clamp Bloodghast, and run all 4 Black Fetches and Terramorphic/Wilds, but they just aren't good enough. At least they beat the Panoramas though.
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Keep in mind, the lands they get enter untapped by default, which is better than the expanse/wild. Essentially, you still get to use your lands the next turn.
That said, with lands having such a small selection of cards, and even smaller for useable ones, and then even smaller for utility lands over mana lands, the Top 50 list really has little to compete with itself in the land category compared to the colors.
And even then, the number of some of those utility lands that I never see astounds me. (Primarily thinking about Winding Canyons, it's on the top 50, I never see it. Anywhere. And it's insanely good. It's really stupid how strong it is.)
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Aww, but sinfires overzealous denouncing of the obvious is what keeps us from being drowned in "Hey I think Karmic guide is pretty good, especially with Genesis," in this thread.
Okay I'm cheating her but I just saw knowledge vault and want one. As far as I'm aware its the only card with that effect that sends the exiled cards to the graveyard if its destroyed. You can also pay 0 at anytime to get the cards so unless they have krosan grip or your hand is still too good to lose it'll get you some decent C/A. It might be good in colors that have terrible CA (I'm looking at you red) if all else fails. I'm at least going to try it out in a deck or two.
Personally I'd like it a lot better if posts like "Hey guys, Reveillark is so underrated and awesome!" were infracted for spam and that was it. I know Sinfire Titan gets really pissed when people post pointless stuff like that, but no need to flame someone out for it. Just report the post and be done with it.
Back to hidden gems...
I play both Predict and Foreshadow in my Sakashima deck mainly because I'm getting sick of Mirage tutors being so good as well as people that use Top and retreat it to the top of their library (and yes, I play Psychic Surgery too). I find both Predict and its almost identical cousin Foreshadow to be excellent surprises for the mana cost they are worth. They're also good when someone has a card like Oracle of Mul Daya or Future Sight out so you can nail someone guaranteed for the full two cards. Absolute worst-case scenario, they cycle for two mana.
I actually run them in a non-infinite Oona deck for that same reason. Also, they play so well with Lantern of Insight. You'd be surprised how many people get frustrated that everyone gets to know their draw and that you can instantly shuffle away any problem you see coming.
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