MTG Salvation

Panharmonicon got a lot of attention when it was first spoiled, and I picked up several copies when it was released, but I'm finding I am having a hard time finding very many homes for it. While most of my decks run a fair number of creatures with ETB effects, and other effects which would work well with Panharmonicon, I have found that many of them don't have a high enough density of such effects to really justify the inclusion, due largely to my having moved toward building with greater symmetry and further away from goodstuff builds over time. I suspect the casting cost - CMC 4 is pretty competitive slot in many of my decks - is also a factor. There are exceptions - it's been ridiculous in Riku - but I'm not using it as much as I'd anticipated, and I'm noticing I'm not really seeing it all that often in others' decks, either, despite playing in a not-very-competitive meta.

What has been your experience with this card so far?

Quote from JWK »

PanharmoniconWhat has been your experience with this card so far?

I run it in 2 decks with overall very good results:

1. Brago, King Eternal - Obviously nuts. An early boardstate with Solemn Simulacrum/Kor Cartographer or etb draw can get out of hand faster than you can spell the cards name.

2. Gonti, Lord of Luxury - Far more casual deck, but with the etb focus i never drew a blank with it. Also nice with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and its bounce/reanimation schemes.

All in all it comes down whether your deck is taylored around etb effects like the two above Roon of the Hidden Realm or Purphoros, God of the Forge. If the deck isn't its propably above average at best.

I played it in Vish Kal sac/recur, where it did some work. I can't see it working out in a lot of the decks I build. The fact that the card does nothing on its own makes it tough to include when it's borderline.

I think in decks that want that effect it is an auto include like Brago or similar blink value commanders but by no means a staple in everything.

It's kind of like Rings of Brighthearth, but the effects have fairly different levels of usefulness. Rings increases the benefits of a lot of cards, from planeswalkers to fetchlands. Panharmonicon's problem is that most decks based around effective etb cards already has so many ways to recur those cards and effets that Panharmonicon becomes akin to "win more" effects/cards. This especially holds true for combo decks. Why double an etb effect when you're just going to infinite combo it anyway?

Panharmonicon holds up pretty well in decks that don't just work to infinite combo. I'll probably end up using it in Jeleva, as my win-con is mill via Jeleva's ETB effect. I'll probably use it in a few more decks that I won't be going infinite with, and I think that these are the best decks for it.

I pulled a copy and it sits in my folder to this day doing nothing. None of the decks I have really justify its inclusion, despite it being quite a good card at what it does. My wife plays it in Roon of the Hidden Realm, but I no longer have any decks dedicated to ETB or blink so it really doesn't fit anywhere for me. Which is a shame, I want to like the card.

Its on my wishlist for Karador, Ghost Chieftain as the whole deck is focused on saccing and recurring/replaying ETB creatures. It could probably replace Blade of Selves, because as satisfying as equipping it to Kokusho, the Evening Star, Panharmonicon is probably more reliable and less kill-on-sight. It just hasnt been a priority to get since Ive been finishing up my Breya and Yidris decks.

But it's an auto-include in almost every deck. It should be banned before it even comes out! So said WAY too many people about 4 months ago...

With all seriousness, the card is good in decks that take advantage of ETB effects. Currently, it has a slot in my Norin the Wary deck and that's about it. It's also very much a casual all-star. The tighter your decks are tuned, the harder it is to find a spot for it unless it pulls weight.

I like it in my Alesha as she has a lot of ETB token makers, along with permanents that trigger whenever a creature ETBs under my control. The Panharmonicon essentially multiplies the triggers from tokens by 4, as I get twice as many tokens and twice as many triggers from each token. Siege-Gang Commander for 14 +1/+1 counters on my whole team or 28 damage to each opponent is a pretty nice deal.

If you have 30-40 creature/artifact ETBs it becomes a shoo-in (number range is not a hard calculation, just an estimation). Lower than that, it is usually unreliable.

While a lot of people complain about Commander being essentially ETB: The Gathering, I've found that there's a lot of more constant effects as well as cast/dies triggers instead of only ETB triggers, which means Panharmonicon isn't as strong as you'd expect in Commander. I do run it in Karador and Ezuri - double experience counters is fun, and double Massacre Wurms as well - but aside from those two, none of my decks would improve from having it, and most would actually grow worse by having a 4-mana usually do nothing artifact around.
Blink decks love it though. As if those needed more toys to be obnoxious.

Yeah, it sounds like a blink specialist's tool.

I have something sort of similar to that, so I run it there. Nowhere else, though.

Yeah, Panharmonicon isn't anywhere close to an automatic shoe-in, but damn is it good when the deck is built to make use of it, and explicit synergy with the commander doesn't hurt either. It's been doing work in my Prime Speaker Zegana ETB-flavoured list, and I imagine it's a formidable include in Purphoros, God of the Forge (Siege-Gang Commander turns into 28 damage to each opponent - dayum!).

Panharminacon is also kinda awkwardly mana costed. You can't abuse it with various 3 cmc abuse stuff like sun titan or the 3 cmc trinket mage. There aren't many commanders that you can play on the curve with panharminacon and even decks like roon and brago you have to butcher your tempo to play panharminacon.

turn 4 brago -> turn 5 panharminacon -> get value out of your 2 and 3 drops (eg. wall of omens) vs turn 5 Cloudblazer and get 4 cards and 4 life.

Brago, King Eternal loves this thing. I have a non-competitive Voltron auras build. I once followed up a turn three Panharmonicon with a turn four Academy Researchers carrying Eldrazi Conscription and Unquestioned Authority.

As someone who loves to abuse triggers, I am very surprised I haven't found anywhere to put it. It is a specialist tool. If it had a LTB trigger double too it would've been a windmill slam into one of at least 3-4 decks. But as it is I dropped Brago, King Eternal a while ago and haven't replaced him with another ETB deck yet. I'm glad to have a copy just in case though.

Quote from un_diplomatic »

I think in decks that want that effect it is an auto include like Brago or similar blink value commanders but by no means a staple in everything.

Yeah, but it is kinda fun to have it and Purph out and then drop Hornet Queen or Deranged Hermit for 18 damage. (I love when doublers become quadruplers.)

It's not really Doubling Season 6 or whatever number we're on (and of course Doubling Season 1 for nongreen decks), but it is certainly playable.

Quote from hyalapterouslemur »

Quote from un_diplomatic »

I think in decks that want that effect it is an auto include like Brago or similar blink value commanders but by no means a staple in everything.

Yeah, but it is kinda fun to have it and Purph out and then drop Hornet Queen or Deranged Hermit for 18 damage. (I love when doublers become quadruplers.)

It's not really Doubling Season 6 or whatever number we're on (and of course Doubling Season 1 for nongreen decks), but it is certainly playable.

Panharmonicon doubles the things twice. First, the ETB would make 9 bodies total, and then each of the bodies ETB'ing would trigger Purph twice. So, in fact, 36 damage, not 18. Pretty silly, eh?

Panharmonicon doubles the things twice. First, the ETB would make 9 bodies total, and then each of the bodies ETB'ing would trigger Purph twice. So, in fact, 36 damage, not 18. Pretty silly, eh?

Panharmonicon would only double the tokens the original card generates. So you would have 6 tokens and the original. 7 total cards generates 14 damage from Purph then doubled by the Panharmonicon for a total of 28 damage.

Quote from ConstantMists »

Panharmonicon doubles the things twice. First, the ETB would make 9 bodies total, and then each of the bodies ETB'ing would trigger Purph twice. So, in fact, 36 damage, not 18. Pretty silly, eh?

Panharmonicon would only double the tokens the original card generates. So you would have 6 tokens and the original. 7 total cards generates 14 damage from Purph then doubled by the Panharmonicon for a total of 28 damage.

28 is the damage for Siege-Gang Commander as in my original example. Here I was correcting the math on Hornet Queen/Deranged Hermit, which does add up to 36.

Actually, I brainfarted and meant 18 triggers. Yeah, it is 36 damage. It goes like this:

Deranged Hermit resolves, putting two copies of Purphoros and two copies of its own ability on the stack.
The first copy of its ability resolves, putting four squirrels on the battlefield, putting eight copies of Purph's ability on the stack.
The eight copies resolve (16 damage)
The second copy of Hermit's ability resolves, putting four squirrels on the battlefield and eight copies of Purph's ability on the stack.
The eight copies resolve (another 16 damage)
The two remaining copies of Purphoros' ability resolve (4 damage).

So, 36.

Pretty hard to survive that.

Panharmonicon is a greedy card right?

Any time you're spending 4 mana, and holding off a turn to play something that doesn't have an immediate effect, it becomes a bit of a risky play.

So I begrudgingly put it into my Brago deck...and the answer is that its just bonkers in that deck. The fact that early ETB creatures that are already in play can get value from it, makes the difference for including it.

However I've never even considered including it in any of my other decks, and a lot of them are ETB creature based. I will review some of the decks for possible inclusion, but for the reason of being a "greedy" slot, haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Quote from darrenhabib »

Panharmonicon is a greedy card right?

Any time you're spending 4 mana, and holding off a turn to play something that doesn't have an immediate effect, it becomes a bit of a risky play.

So I begrudgingly put it into my Brago deck...and the answer is that its just bonkers in that deck. The fact that early ETB creatures that are already in play can get value from it, makes the difference for including it.

However I've never even considered including it in any of my other decks, and a lot of them are ETB creature based. I will review some of the decks for possible inclusion, but for the reason of being a "greedy" slot, haven't pulled the trigger yet.

It's a good analogy. It makes good things better, but it's hard to include simply because of a few powerful ETB triggers. Which is why it's an auto include in Roon and Brage, but unless its built around there's no other dedicated home for it.

My Riku deck is all creatures with ETB effects - and obviously Riku's own (creature) trigger is copied by Panharmonicon. It's crazy insane in that deck. Riku + Panharmonicon + Evoke Mulldrifter = 12 cards and 2 2/2 flying creature tokens for UUUGG2. I don't go infinite in mine though, so I get a lot of value that is necessary to close out games. If you are going infinite I totally see how it wouldn't be crucial to any game plans.

It's flat broken in my norin the wary deck. I have also been toying with a 5 color elementals deck and this will probably make it in there as well. Of course, that deck might as well be named as etb:the deck. However, I don't play it any others and I have 16 decks at the moment with many more incoming..I might need to take some of those apart now that I think about it...