I'm working on a Sigarda, Heron's Grace EDH deck which uses a sort of Turbo-Fog strategy, and I'm looking for any spells that prevent large amounts of damage. Things that have synergy with Selfless Squire are especially welcome.
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Your new prescription eyeglasses don’t work. You still can’t see things my way.
Selfless Squire is good with recursion/flickering. Not sure what you will do to play this up, but most of those cards should also work with Stonehorn Dignitary.
Spike weaver is my favorite searchable with green tutors multiple uses and rattlesnakes however it does die to doom blade. I used it in my omnath deck as a single slot answer to a faster Doran voltron player in that decks meta and loved it he would see it and kill other players for me.
While I favour the repeatable or creature based options already discussed, there are a few interesting options amongst the one shot effects:
Dawn Charm gives some flexibility, even if the other modes aren't amazing.
Lull and Angelsong have cycling in case you're in a creature light game.
Tangle stops the stuff attacking next turn too. Spore Cloud can do the same as well as some shenanigans when two opponents are fighting. Pollen Lullaby can also work if you can reliably win the clash.
My favorite fog effect is spike weaver. While turbifog does not need doubling season. Always fun to see him come out with more than 3 counters. (Record for me is 28)
Moment's peace
Constant mists
Fog
Angelsong
There are many more but you want to also not fill your deck with too many fog effects as you need answers and utility.
If you are going for voltron fog. I would suggest rafiq instead. Or if you have the cash. Run Angus Mackenzie
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Still, being Sigarda a WG general you can't use those 2 spells.
All the best ones for those colors were listed. Posting these two were for other people than the thread maker who might be looking for other fog effects.
Just noticed I was so focused on looking at actual "Fog" effects, I forgot my favourite damage preventer: Martyr's Cause. Needs some fodder, which Sigarda's ability conveniently provides. Righteous Aura can do the same for mana and life instead of a creature provided the damage is directed at you.
Seriously no mention of Chronomantic Escape yet? It's like the best fog there is! It prevents each opponent from attacking you rather than just one, and it casts itself over and over again for free every three turns. If I were building a turbo-fog strategy, this would be the first fog I'd include.
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Seriously no mention of Chronomantic Escape yet? It's like the best fog there is! It prevents each opponent from attacking you rather than just one, and it casts itself over and over again for free every three turns. If I were building a turbo-fog strategy, this would be the first fog I'd include.
If you have the money, Forcefield. (It's actually "1: The next time you would take damage from an unblocked creature, prevent all but 1 of that damage.") On a more budget-minded note, Story Circle.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
If you have the money, Forcefield. (It's actually "1: The next time you would take damage from an unblocked creature, prevent all but 1 of that damage.") On a more budget-minded note, Story Circle.
Ajani Steadfast's ultimate gives you the same effect, and the card is far more affordable too. The giving vigilance also helps protect yourself so it's probably a good card to include anyway.
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Yeah, but I'm always careful about including planeswalkers just for the ultimate. The vigilance is nice, however.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Per the actual factual "fog" effects, Darkness is my absolute favorite, since it is in the most unlikely color to have the effect, and the color that can tutor it up easily when they expect a possible craterhoof push.
While not a technical "fog," Wake the Dead is a phenomenal card in any creature-based black deck. The idea I suppose was to create emergency chump-blockers, but you can still cast it even if the opponent doesn't attack. It essentially reads; Pay black+black+X, where X equals however many etb triggers you want to rebuy from your graveyard.
Well, Frontline Strategist can potentially find a spot in Soldier or Morph tribal. Except there aren't many white Morph decks, and there aren't going to be many morphs in a Soldier tribal deck (so you'd be telegraphing hard).
A number of my favorite fogs have already been listed, but I wanted to highlight some of the synergies and packages that can be wrong for a strong fog defense, should you choose to go heavier on it.
A quick note is that a fog defense should be in place to supplement your normal defenses, not replace them. Alone, fogs are not the best line of defense, and should not be solely depended upon.
One Shot Power Houses
Tangle and Spore cloud remain two of my top one shot effects - the second turn tap down really punishes the player who attacked you, and opens them up to additional retaliation. Mirror Strike - The redirection effect from mirror strike allows you to redirect that Commander damage back onto its controller. The only disadvantage is that it targets, making it vulnerable to shroud/hexproof. Arachnogenesis - Fog, plus future chump blockers. Or army. Win win. Win. Reflect Damage - Downside being the 5 mana, which brings it out of Sunforger range, but the upside is that it reflects all damage sources, allowing for Commander damage redirection, as well as for hilarious situations against Blashpemous Act. Comeuppance is another great fog effect. While I initially slotted it in as half a wrath, it's not consistent enough for that. What it is instead is a very powerful fog that also protects Planeswalkers, while also threatening a sharp retribution against an army, or a finishing burn shot. Batwing Brume has been mentioned a few times, and I just really want to echo that. While it doesn't work with Sunforger, it remains a powerful deterrent all on its own.
Green also has a bunch of one sided fogs (non-green, not creatures with +1 counters, not your stuff, etc), that depending on your strategy, a few of those may allow you to block profitably and still win out the exchange.
Spike Weaver
Spike Weaver is possibly the best fog in Commander, period. Alone, it has 3 potential uses straight up, but on top of that it plays well with +1 counter themes, creature recursion, and blink strategies - all popular choices in Commander.
The hoops that players have gone through to kill a spike weaver with a Gift of Immortality on it is insane, and the fact that it can just eat its own counters to dodge exile, as a pseudo-sac effect, is powerful as well.
For fun, you can try it with the Cauldron of Souls to give it persist. Since you're removing +1 counters from it, it can even work with Undying strategies, though note that Dark Mikaeus giving a static +1/+1 actually interferes with it (unless you have a sac outlet).
It synergizes especially well with Commanders like Marath, Ghave, Karador, and Ezuri, but holds its own for just 4 mana as well.
It was one of the fogs of choice for my Marath deck, but could easily also slot into Karador or Trostani without even a heartbeat of hesitation.
Knight Captain of Fog
Knight-Captain of Eos is a bit less universal than Spike Weaver, but comes out with 2 uses on his own, and still plays well with reanimation and blink strategies, while also playing well with token making strategies and soldiers. Of note is that Kjeldoran Outpost is quite good as a decent land, and plays exceptionally well with the Fog Knight.
Lands - part 1
Maze of Ith and Kor Haven can be powerful deterents to attackers, especially those that rely on voltron strategies. Glaring Spotlight and Arcane Lighthouse can help with targeting problems. At one point, these became so prevalent in my meta that everyone was running up to 3 Strip mine effects to combat them, while also running Vesuva (and eventually Thespian Stage) to copy them.
Of side note is Prahv, Spires of Order, which while considerably more expensive to activate, also works against non-combat sources of damage.
Lands - part 2
Glacial Chasm is an extremely potent card, but requires significant build around to use well. My Trostani deck makes excellent use of it, as Green/White is able to offset the land sacrifice penalty, as well as recur it most easily. Sun Titan alone allows you to sacrifice it on your upkeep, thus opening your attack, and then bring it back with the Sun Titan.
As others have said, Crop Rotation or Knight of the Reliquary allow you to pull it out at instant speed, while cards like Titania can bring it directly back into play from the grave.
Constant Mists is another powerhouse to go with the lands package, if you can afford to offest the land losses. Even if you can't, often times losing a land in the late game is not such a crippling blow. Constant mists remains a threat as long as your opponent is unable to deal with your hand.
Sunforger also allows you to keep up other defensive spells, such as Wing Shards, Boros Charm, etc... and have removal on the standby at all times. Even 'wrath' effects can be threatened, as Arcbond has become a favorite addition to the sunforger lineup for me.
Arboria is a lesser known world enchantment from ages past, but since it only care about cards that are played or put into play on your turn, it slots well into draw-go style decks like Yeva, or decks that run Winding Canyons or Alchemist's Refuge. Or, decks that make lots of creature tokens instead. It can certainly backfire by helping opponents, but since you can control when to remove it (remember also that as a World Enchantment, you can use the World rule to pop it with a Concordant Crossroads), this threat can be minimized.
Note that lands do count for it, so you'll want ways to keep dropping lands on opposing turns, like Burgeoning or the thousand other green effects that let you do cheaty stuff like that.
Moment's Peace is nice with flashback, since you get two uses out of it normally, and you can get one use out of it if it gets milled.
Crop Rotation can serve as a Fog if you run Glacial Chasm, in addition to being able to tutor other utility lands.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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I would include Isochron Scepter.
Selfless Squire is good with recursion/flickering. Not sure what you will do to play this up, but most of those cards should also work with Stonehorn Dignitary.
Comeuppance?
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Dawn Charm gives some flexibility, even if the other modes aren't amazing.
Lull and Angelsong have cycling in case you're in a creature light game.
Tangle stops the stuff attacking next turn too. Spore Cloud can do the same as well as some shenanigans when two opponents are fighting. Pollen Lullaby can also work if you can reliably win the clash.
Safe Passage prevents all damage, not just combat
Moment's peace
Constant mists
Fog
Angelsong
There are many more but you want to also not fill your deck with too many fog effects as you need answers and utility.
If you are going for voltron fog. I would suggest rafiq instead. Or if you have the cash. Run Angus Mackenzie
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UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Ethereal Haze stops noncombat damage from creatures too.
Constant Mists: This one's really fun with Sun Titan and Titania, Protector of Argoth.
Spike Weaver: Four uses or moar, all-important Reveillark synergy.
Spore Frog: Reveillark and Sun Titan synergy!
Druid's Deliverance: Saves only you. Great for Overrun-type one-turn wins, but also lets you block selectively.
Arachnogenesis: For when you need a some tokens.
Tangle: Nuff said.
Tanglesap: Only stops non-tramplers. This can be fun with something like Akroma's Memorial.
Safe Passage: Prevents all damage.
Purity and Vigor: Prevent all damage to you or creatures you control. They're also removal lightning rods, for obvious reasons.
Dawn Charm: It's a charm!
Angelsong and Lull: Cycling.
Haze Frog: Great with blink cards, so long as it comes back immediately. Also, Reveillark synergy.
Dawnstrider: As long as you can draw more than one card per turn, Dawnstrider is worth it. Can also enable madness.
On phasing:
And as everyone else has said and as my name implies Constant Mists is the best Fog effect ever.
Batwing Brume: It punishes whomever swung into you.
Beating Face with Bane
Beatrice, the Golden Witch
All the best ones for those colors were listed. Posting these two were for other people than the thread maker who might be looking for other fog effects.
Beating Face with Bane
Beatrice, the Golden Witch
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Doesn't interact with Selfless Squire.
If you have the money, Forcefield. (It's actually "1: The next time you would take damage from an unblocked creature, prevent all but 1 of that damage.") On a more budget-minded note, Story Circle.
On phasing:
Though not damage prevention per se, Palisade Giant, Protector of the Crown, or Weathered Bodyguards protected with something like Darksteel Plate might do.
Ajani Steadfast's ultimate gives you the same effect, and the card is far more affordable too. The giving vigilance also helps protect yourself so it's probably a good card to include anyway.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
On phasing:
Per the actual factual "fog" effects, Darkness is my absolute favorite, since it is in the most unlikely color to have the effect, and the color that can tutor it up easily when they expect a possible craterhoof push.
Constant Mists is a powerhouse in a slower meta. Comeuppance and Selfless Squire are very good at really wrecking the opponent.
While not a technical "fog," Wake the Dead is a phenomenal card in any creature-based black deck. The idea I suppose was to create emergency chump-blockers, but you can still cast it even if the opponent doesn't attack. It essentially reads; Pay black+black+X, where X equals however many etb triggers you want to rebuy from your graveyard.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
It looks good but I haven't played with it or seen it played.
@ The Codfather, All of those are garbage.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Most of the better ones (Batwing Brume, Comeuppance, Arachnogenesis, Tangle, Moment's Peace, Dawn Charm) were already listed. A few of my personal favs, especially in EDH, that are a little costly but worth it (and in-color!):
Respite
Riot Control
Blunt the Assault
A quick note is that a fog defense should be in place to supplement your normal defenses, not replace them. Alone, fogs are not the best line of defense, and should not be solely depended upon.
One Shot Power Houses
Tangle and Spore cloud remain two of my top one shot effects - the second turn tap down really punishes the player who attacked you, and opens them up to additional retaliation.
Mirror Strike - The redirection effect from mirror strike allows you to redirect that Commander damage back onto its controller. The only disadvantage is that it targets, making it vulnerable to shroud/hexproof.
Arachnogenesis - Fog, plus future chump blockers. Or army. Win win. Win.
Reflect Damage - Downside being the 5 mana, which brings it out of Sunforger range, but the upside is that it reflects all damage sources, allowing for Commander damage redirection, as well as for hilarious situations against Blashpemous Act.
Comeuppance is another great fog effect. While I initially slotted it in as half a wrath, it's not consistent enough for that. What it is instead is a very powerful fog that also protects Planeswalkers, while also threatening a sharp retribution against an army, or a finishing burn shot.
Batwing Brume has been mentioned a few times, and I just really want to echo that. While it doesn't work with Sunforger, it remains a powerful deterrent all on its own.
Green also has a bunch of one sided fogs (non-green, not creatures with +1 counters, not your stuff, etc), that depending on your strategy, a few of those may allow you to block profitably and still win out the exchange.
Spike Weaver
Spike Weaver is possibly the best fog in Commander, period. Alone, it has 3 potential uses straight up, but on top of that it plays well with +1 counter themes, creature recursion, and blink strategies - all popular choices in Commander.
The hoops that players have gone through to kill a spike weaver with a Gift of Immortality on it is insane, and the fact that it can just eat its own counters to dodge exile, as a pseudo-sac effect, is powerful as well.
For fun, you can try it with the Cauldron of Souls to give it persist. Since you're removing +1 counters from it, it can even work with Undying strategies, though note that Dark Mikaeus giving a static +1/+1 actually interferes with it (unless you have a sac outlet).
It synergizes especially well with Commanders like Marath, Ghave, Karador, and Ezuri, but holds its own for just 4 mana as well.
It was one of the fogs of choice for my Marath deck, but could easily also slot into Karador or Trostani without even a heartbeat of hesitation.
Knight Captain of Fog
Knight-Captain of Eos is a bit less universal than Spike Weaver, but comes out with 2 uses on his own, and still plays well with reanimation and blink strategies, while also playing well with token making strategies and soldiers. Of note is that Kjeldoran Outpost is quite good as a decent land, and plays exceptionally well with the Fog Knight.
Lands - part 1
Maze of Ith and Kor Haven can be powerful deterents to attackers, especially those that rely on voltron strategies. Glaring Spotlight and Arcane Lighthouse can help with targeting problems. At one point, these became so prevalent in my meta that everyone was running up to 3 Strip mine effects to combat them, while also running Vesuva (and eventually Thespian Stage) to copy them.
Of side note is Prahv, Spires of Order, which while considerably more expensive to activate, also works against non-combat sources of damage.
Lands - part 2
Glacial Chasm is an extremely potent card, but requires significant build around to use well. My Trostani deck makes excellent use of it, as Green/White is able to offset the land sacrifice penalty, as well as recur it most easily. Sun Titan alone allows you to sacrifice it on your upkeep, thus opening your attack, and then bring it back with the Sun Titan.
As others have said, Crop Rotation or Knight of the Reliquary allow you to pull it out at instant speed, while cards like Titania can bring it directly back into play from the grave.
Constant Mists is another powerhouse to go with the lands package, if you can afford to offest the land losses. Even if you can't, often times losing a land in the late game is not such a crippling blow. Constant mists remains a threat as long as your opponent is unable to deal with your hand.
Sunforger
Sunforger's ability to cast instants from your deck is quite potent, allowing you to cast Holy Day, Angel's Grace, Dawn Charm, or Comeuppance.
Sunforger also allows you to keep up other defensive spells, such as Wing Shards, Boros Charm, etc... and have removal on the standby at all times. Even 'wrath' effects can be threatened, as Arcbond has become a favorite addition to the sunforger lineup for me.
You can use cards like Mistveil Plains or Conjurer's Bauble to then restock your spell for a future use, while Leonin Shikari will help you re-equip for repeated use.
Arboria
Arboria is a lesser known world enchantment from ages past, but since it only care about cards that are played or put into play on your turn, it slots well into draw-go style decks like Yeva, or decks that run Winding Canyons or Alchemist's Refuge. Or, decks that make lots of creature tokens instead. It can certainly backfire by helping opponents, but since you can control when to remove it (remember also that as a World Enchantment, you can use the World rule to pop it with a Concordant Crossroads), this threat can be minimized.
Note that lands do count for it, so you'll want ways to keep dropping lands on opposing turns, like Burgeoning or the thousand other green effects that let you do cheaty stuff like that.
Spore Frog
Spore Frog and Kami of the False Hope are the fog package of choice in my Karador deck. As one drop creatures, they are easily recured with Karador, Sun Titan, Proclamation of Rebirth, Orzhov Charm, Gift of Immortality, Sword of Light and Shadow, and other creature recursion effects.
On top of the ease of recursion, creatures are easy to tutor for, and as one drops they fit into a Ranger of Eos package.
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