I mean...mind funeral is absolute trash-tier in commander. It's not even as efficient as traumatize in most cases, traumatize mills ~43 cards for 5 mana, mind funeral mills like 11 on average for 3. And the only thing saving traumatize is that it can hit yourself.
The biggest hit to mill is that no one else is probably going to help you, so if you want to threaten anyone you have to do all the work yourself (and in commander you'll be giving them synergy while doing it and you might hit an eldrazi and undo all your work). It's basically like infect if you had to deal ~70 infect damage before they died.
Not to say mill can't work with an infinite combo or lantern control or mana doublers + mind grind or some sort of efficient engine, but using the mill equivalent of lava axe (mind funeral, glimpse the unthinkable, traumatize, etc) is a horrible idea if your goal is to win ever.
I keep hearing(and idly suggesting) people planning to combo this with Keening Stone, but it can backfire/be a dead draw more often than not. Lots of GY decks out there(at least at my LGS), and half of those that aren't GY builds have one or two Eldrazi titans(or at LEAST an Elixir of Immortality or Feldon's Cane).
I enjoy playing this card. By no means is it fantastic but I played it in casual for a long time and getting yourself with it in sultai reanimator decks is always a good feeling.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EDH BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern: RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
I have Traumatize in Wrexial (being primarily mill, secondarily graveyard abuse) - if it doesn't seem likely I can mill out a player, I can at least mill the white or black player and get a wrath in their graveyard to cast should the excrement hit the fan. Or target most anyone and get a juicy Wrexial target. I try to mill people as my primary win condition, but there are other ways to abuse everyone having a big grave.
That, and it's always a fun spell to cast, and then cast again from your graveyard to another player if a mill victory actually seems like a thing (I have had a fair few games where no one had legendary eldrazi or such, or I could exile them).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
If you have 30 lands in your deck (which is about the lowest I've seen in an EDH deck), Mind Funeral hits you for an average of 13~14 cards, maybe more if you use ramp spells in the vein of Kodama's Reach. So, yeah, Traumatize hits for a lot more. Usually 30~40 cards.
The two obvious uses are first, on yourself, and secondly, with an active Bloodchief Ascension, though for the latter, Mindcrank might be better, though you really have a lot of options for that combo.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
I quite like the cycle of borderposts. Early you can play them like tapped lands, and later you can cast them as ramp, and as long as you're ok with taking your time, the downside to that is opening yourself up to artifact sweepers. My complaint is that I feel if you pay the mana cost it should enter untapped, but I still play these in a few decks.
Edit: it took me until just now, when I typed the wrong card name, to realize the names are all compound words with a word for each color.
G Wildfield W
W Fieldmist U
U Mistvein B
B Veinfire R
R Firewild G
I don’t think I’d use the current cycle of borderposts outside of artifact-centric builds. It’s an okay turn-one play...that a Trygon will come racing for every time.
Man, they need to complete mana rock cycles. I’d use a RW one of these and all the non-green talismans.
A cycle I would not mind seeing completed. Not the highest-priority rocks, but still pretty neat.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
Needing to return a basic land is a big hit against these imo. Since you can only run them in multicolor decks by definition, I'm usually only running a handful of basics even in 2-color, let alone 3+. Granted fetches can hit basics in a pinch but usually I'd rather hit a dual or shock or whatever with my first 2 fetches.
And ofc a 3-drop etbt rock is pretty trash. It's nice that you can keep a 1 lander with this in a pinch (which seems like the only time I'd really be happy to use the alt cost) but then odds of that land being a fetch or basic are fairly low, and a function etbt dual is pretty mediocre too. Basically I think it's just too weak on both sides to seriously consider in a deck that doesn't get big value out of this being an artifact or something. And even in an artifact synergy deck it's hard to justify over 2-drop rocks.
In a world where we see 3-drop rocks that come in untapped and do more to fix your mana, I just don't see the value of this cycle except maybe in decks with a heavy "artifacts matter" theme. Tapped or bouncing a basic land... yeah, I'm really not seeing a situation where I would ever select one of these over, say, one of the relevant Signets, or even a Keyrune of the relevant colors... and how often do you see anyone running Keyrunes? In 3+ colors, I would never consider this when Chromatic Lantern and Commander's Sphere exist.
These are garbage, and even the most budget decks have better options. If its fixing you need, run one of the innumerable always etb tapped duals like Urborg Volcano. If you want ramp, run nearly any other rock. If you want both, run Ravnica Karoos.
The only deck that could potentially, maybe want these is a multicolor non basic land hate deck. These would help fix your mana without being vulnerable to your own hate. Still bad though.
I understand that they are flexible, but both options are trash. It's a worse version of the worst dual lands, its a worse version of the worst mana fixing rocks. If you wouldn't run Urborg Volcano and Obelisk of Grixis, you shouldn't run this, and even if youd consider those cards, you should run them BEFORE you run this. Hell, there's a whole updated, generic plane cycle if the Urborg Volcano cycle, and the gates, AND refuges that you'd have to go through to reach this dreck on the land front (and when you cast it for 1, its a land drop that is more vulnerable than a land), and about 3 or four cycles of superior rocks (signets, talismans, the guild rocks you can sacrifice, and like 10 that give you any color).
Yeah, its an interesting design, but it needed to be able to return and come in untapped if hardcast to not suck. That way at least you could use them to return lands to reset their counters or reuse etb abilities (or be able to play more lands without killing city of traitors). As it stands, its only neat application is as a terrible landfall enable
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
The only deck that could potentially, maybe want these is a multicolor non basic land hate deck. These would help fix your mana without being vulnerable to your own hate. Still bad though.
I don't see any reason to specify non-basic hate here. If you're playing Armageddon, you'd still rather have used a land drop for this than pretty much any land. The downside of dying to artifact hate swings to upside when you bring MLD into the mix. That's most of where these see play outside edh, in modern Restore Balance where they just cost a land drop, survive the namesake spell, and dodge 3 mana cascade. The other way I've seen them pop up is in devotion decks that will effectively play a tapped land when it adds to their devotion. That's not gonna be a thing in edh with singleton cards and color identity limits, but it's definitely a fringe benefit.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
The only deck that could potentially, maybe want these is a multicolor non basic land hate deck. These would help fix your mana without being vulnerable to your own hate. Still bad though.
I don't see any reason to specify non-basic hate here. If you're playing Armageddon, you'd still rather have used a land drop for this than pretty much any land. The downside of dying to artifact hate swings to upside when you bring MLD into the mix. That's most of where these see play outside edh, in modern Restore Balance where they just cost a land drop, survive the namesake spell, and dodge 3 mana cascade. The other way I've seen them pop up is in devotion decks that will effectively play a tapped land when it adds to their devotion. That's not gonna be a thing in edh with singleton cards and color identity limits, but it's definitely a fringe benefit.
I specified non basic land hate because, if you are just going the mld route, there are just too many better rocks to run before these. If you are going non basic hate, however, you are probably running a lot of basics, which makes these actually work (since they need basics) and they are actually helpful because you get to run them as a land drop and still play your basic lands. It's still bad though, and I'd still rather have most other rocks, but at least there its ability is reliable. Multicolor MLD decks tend to want to run more nonbasics that help break the symmetry, like Ancient Tomb or Dakmoor Salvage, so you can recover more quickly thank your opponents. Too many non basics makes the border post ability unreliable.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
And ofc a 3-drop etbt rock is pretty trash. It's nice that you can keep a 1 lander with this in a pinch (which seems like the only time I'd really be happy to use the alt cost) but then odds of that land being a fetch or basic are fairly low, and a function etbt dual is pretty mediocre too. Basically I think it's just too weak on both sides to seriously consider in a deck that doesn't get big value out of this being an artifact or something. And even in an artifact synergy deck it's hard to justify over 2-drop rocks.
Rocks at 3 can be good if it's something that survives something like Jokulhaups. Or if it has some other purpose, is bigger, scales, is a cantrip/cycles/cycles from play/scrys, fixes all the mana (in a 3+ color deck, and your meta includes cards like Blood Moon and Back to Basics). This...isn't any of that, and most of those exist without ETBT.
Bouncing a land would qualify, since bouncing a land is really good in (or against) Stax once Winter Orb or itscousins hit the table, except...it requires you also pay 1.
Landfall decks might play it, but probably not, so expect Firewild and Wildfield to see some play in budget decks. This one, however, I've never seen a landfall deck use both blue and black. Maybe Dakkon Blackblade, but you want all the lands to stay on the battlefield (or maybe be blinked or sac'd/discarded and Sun Titan'd) there.
The cards themselves had a simple purpose: To provide one-drops in Alara Reborn, and (of course) to smooth mana for limited. I don't even think landfall played them during ALA/ZEN Standard.
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!
I specified non basic land hate because, if you are just going the mld route, there are just too many better rocks to run before these. If you are going non basic hate, however, you are probably running a lot of basics, which makes these actually work (since they need basics) and they are actually helpful because you get to run them as a land drop and still play your basic lands. It's still bad though, and I'd still rather have most other rocks, but at least there its ability is reliable. Multicolor MLD decks tend to want to run more nonbasics that help break the symmetry, like Ancient Tomb or Dakmoor Salvage, so you can recover more quickly thank your opponents. Too many non basics makes the border post ability unreliable.
Sounds like you don't play enough basic lands. Even in a 5 color deck with the full cycle of these, I have never been unable to bounce the basic for a borderpost.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
Ana battlemage doesn't make the cut into my box. Discard 3 is pretty nasty, but for 6 it's not amazing and it can't be easily retriggered, and the other ability is mediocre. Plus the CI is tough. 23 decks on EDHrec puts it in pretty bad company, as one might expect.
Sounds like you don't play enough basic lands. Even in a 5 color deck with the full cycle of these, I have never been unable to bounce the basic for a borderpost.
Consider you can run 10 duals, 10 shocks, 10 fetches, and any of the filters/odyfilters/cycleduals/checklands/karoos/rainbows/fastlands/etc not to mention utility lands, I don't see why you'd have many more than 5 basics in a 5 color deck unless you're really worried about nonbasic hate. And unless your meta is packed with blood moons and ruinations, it still seems like you'd be better off just packing a counterspell or two and hoping for the best rather than gimping your manabase.
I mean if you're on a budget or whatever and you're running mostly basics then that's fine, but that doesn't mean someone else "doesn't play enough basics". Let alone for the flimsy reason of being able to play aggressively mediocre mana rocks like the borderposts. In most cases the only reasons to run any basics whatsoever in a 4-5 color decks is to either curb your losses against nonbasic hate, or because you're on a budget.
Ana battlemage doesn't make the cut into my box. Discard 3 is pretty nasty, but for 6 it's not amazing and it can't be easily retriggered, and the other ability is mediocre. Plus the CI is tough. 23 decks on EDHrec puts it in pretty bad company, as one might expect.
Sounds like you don't play enough basic lands. Even in a 5 color deck with the full cycle of these, I have never been unable to bounce the basic for a borderpost.
Consider you can run 10 duals, 10 shocks, 10 fetches, and any of the filters/odyfilters/cycleduals/checklands/karoos/rainbows/fastlands/etc not to mention utility lands, I don't see why you'd have many more than 5 basics in a 5 color deck unless you're really worried about nonbasic hate. And unless your meta is packed with blood moons and ruinations, it still seems like you'd be better off just packing a counterspell or two and hoping for the best rather than gimping your manabase.
I mean if you're on a budget or whatever and you're running mostly basics then that's fine, but that doesn't mean someone else "doesn't play enough basics". Let alone for the flimsy reason of being able to play aggressively mediocre mana rocks like the borderposts. In most cases the only reasons to run any basics whatsoever in a 4-5 color decks is to either curb your losses against nonbasic hate, or because you're on a budget.
Agreed. While there are valid reasons to go heavier on basic in tri-color decks, for 4 and above I'd consider 12-16 to be basic heavy, and that just isn't enough to make the border posts work turn 1, which is really when you want to use that ability. It can be somewhat useful later, when you don't have lands in hand, to pay 1, bounce the land with it, and drop the land again, at which point its a free rock, but in that case you could have just had it be a refuge and you'd be in the same situation except gaining a life. Outside of fringe scenarios, you only want to use the bounce a land ability when you can't just hard cast it, because hard casting it actually ramps you.
Ana Battlemage is weird. All battle mages are pretty overcosted despite having intriguing effects, and it suffers from the can't blink curse like all kicker creatures. I actually think that the second ability is much more intriguing than the discard 3; for 6 mana you should be casting something that can win you the game, so while a 2/2 that makes an opponent discard 3 is nice, its not enough. In a 1v1 situation, its better, because you only have to worry about one guy and that is serious CA, but in multiplayer its weak. Its second ability, however, can be spicy, because it both removes a blocker and deals damage based on its power, meaning that you are likely taking their biggest creature out of combat, letting you get an extra guy through, while dealing a decent chunk of damage (because you are probably tapping their strongest dude), all for 5 mana. In a lot of metas, this isn't very good, but in metas where there a lots of fatties running around it can steal games. I run a Dong Zhou deck. His etb ability is similar, it just doesn't tap the creature, and it can do serious work. Granted, you can (and I do) blink Dong Zhou, or otherwise reset him or copy him easily, while you can't with this, which makes him much better against a wider variety of decks than the battle mage (if the biggest dudes you are seeing are 5-6 power, this effect isn't worth it as a one shot, but adds up quickly with multiple activations). If you are in a Timmy meta, though, this packs a wallop. If you got dudes running Hamletback Goliaths with 25 counters on them and big ass hydras, this dude takes advantage of that. He's made for battlecruiser metas, and I'm sure spending 8 to make one guy discard 3 and another take 30 from his own fatty is well worth it. I think the thing holding him back is that the people who would think to use him in such a meta probably aren't playing in such a meta. Timmy doesn't really want to spend 8 on a 2/2 with value abilities, he wants to spend 8 on something that's going to swing in for double digits.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I mean if you're on a budget or whatever and you're running mostly basics then that's fine, but that doesn't mean someone else "doesn't play enough basics". Let alone for the flimsy reason of being able to play aggressively mediocre mana rocks like the borderposts. In most cases the only reasons to run any basics whatsoever in a 4-5 color decks is to either curb your losses against nonbasic hate, or because you're on a budget.
Sure, there's things like Blood Moon and Ruination and Wave of Vitriol. There's also things like Veteran Explorer, Oath of Lieges, Extraplanar Lens, Collective Voyage, and Settle the Wreckage. "Why would I ever play basics in my five color deck?" is an actual response I've gotten someone who was freaking out because I played Oath of Lieges and everyone else got way ahead of him. More deliberately, I play about 15 basics in my 5 color decks so that I can play any of the thousand ramp cards that search for a basic land. I'm pretty sure that having access to Cultivate is a plenty valid reason to play basic lands. The fact that I compete just fine on 1% of the budget you're describing is a fringe benefit.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I quite like the cycle of borderposts. Early you can play them like tapped lands, and later you can cast them as ramp, and as long as you're ok with taking your time, the downside to that is opening yourself up to artifact sweepers. My complaint is that I feel if you pay the mana cost it should enter untapped, but I still play these in a few decks.
The Wildfield and Firewild Borderposts were the only mana rocks I allowed myself in my all-multicolour Mayael deck.
Sure, there's things like Blood Moon and Ruination and Wave of Vitriol. There's also things like Veteran Explorer, Oath of Lieges, Extraplanar Lens, Collective Voyage, and Settle the Wreckage. "Why would I ever play basics in my five color deck?" is an actual response I've gotten someone who was freaking out because I played Oath of Lieges and everyone else got way ahead of him. More deliberately, I play about 15 basics in my 5 color decks so that I can play any of the thousand ramp cards that search for a basic land. I'm pretty sure that having access to Cultivate is a plenty valid reason to play basic lands. The fact that I compete just fine on 1% of the budget you're describing is a fringe benefit.
It's a valid reason to play about 1 of each I'd say. 15 is drastic overkill though - and even if you were running 15 because of having some insane amount of basic-only ramp or a meta that runs a bunch of nonbasic hate / symmetrical ramp, ideally you'd still want to play duals and fetches with the remaining slots because you'd be replacing the filters/checks/etc and not the best fixers in the deck. Especially since fetches can hit basics under back to basics or to take advantage of extraplanar lens or etc. So having 1% of the budget isn't a "fringe benefit" of running lots of basics, it's a mostly unrelated decision to exclude duals and fetches. The optimal basic-heavy manabase still costs like 85% of an optimal fully-nonbasic manabase.
The biggest hit to mill is that no one else is probably going to help you, so if you want to threaten anyone you have to do all the work yourself (and in commander you'll be giving them synergy while doing it and you might hit an eldrazi and undo all your work). It's basically like infect if you had to deal ~70 infect damage before they died.
Not to say mill can't work with an infinite combo or lantern control or mana doublers + mind grind or some sort of efficient engine, but using the mill equivalent of lava axe (mind funeral, glimpse the unthinkable, traumatize, etc) is a horrible idea if your goal is to win ever.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Same, most commonly in 3 thousand card MTGO decks that run various tutors to get it as well
Not something I'd bother with.
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
That, and it's always a fun spell to cast, and then cast again from your graveyard to another player if a mill victory actually seems like a thing (I have had a fair few games where no one had legendary eldrazi or such, or I could exile them).
The two obvious uses are first, on yourself, and secondly, with an active Bloodchief Ascension, though for the latter, Mindcrank might be better, though you really have a lot of options for that combo.
On phasing:
I quite like the cycle of borderposts. Early you can play them like tapped lands, and later you can cast them as ramp, and as long as you're ok with taking your time, the downside to that is opening yourself up to artifact sweepers. My complaint is that I feel if you pay the mana cost it should enter untapped, but I still play these in a few decks.
Edit: it took me until just now, when I typed the wrong card name, to realize the names are all compound words with a word for each color.
G Wildfield W
W Fieldmist U
U Mistvein B
B Veinfire R
R Firewild G
Neato
Man, they need to complete mana rock cycles. I’d use a RW one of these and all the non-green talismans.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
And ofc a 3-drop etbt rock is pretty trash. It's nice that you can keep a 1 lander with this in a pinch (which seems like the only time I'd really be happy to use the alt cost) but then odds of that land being a fetch or basic are fairly low, and a function etbt dual is pretty mediocre too. Basically I think it's just too weak on both sides to seriously consider in a deck that doesn't get big value out of this being an artifact or something. And even in an artifact synergy deck it's hard to justify over 2-drop rocks.
Maybe if balance gets unbanned...
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
The only deck that could potentially, maybe want these is a multicolor non basic land hate deck. These would help fix your mana without being vulnerable to your own hate. Still bad though.
I understand that they are flexible, but both options are trash. It's a worse version of the worst dual lands, its a worse version of the worst mana fixing rocks. If you wouldn't run Urborg Volcano and Obelisk of Grixis, you shouldn't run this, and even if youd consider those cards, you should run them BEFORE you run this. Hell, there's a whole updated, generic plane cycle if the Urborg Volcano cycle, and the gates, AND refuges that you'd have to go through to reach this dreck on the land front (and when you cast it for 1, its a land drop that is more vulnerable than a land), and about 3 or four cycles of superior rocks (signets, talismans, the guild rocks you can sacrifice, and like 10 that give you any color).
Yeah, its an interesting design, but it needed to be able to return and come in untapped if hardcast to not suck. That way at least you could use them to return lands to reset their counters or reuse etb abilities (or be able to play more lands without killing city of traitors). As it stands, its only neat application is as a terrible landfall enable
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I don't see any reason to specify non-basic hate here. If you're playing Armageddon, you'd still rather have used a land drop for this than pretty much any land. The downside of dying to artifact hate swings to upside when you bring MLD into the mix. That's most of where these see play outside edh, in modern Restore Balance where they just cost a land drop, survive the namesake spell, and dodge 3 mana cascade. The other way I've seen them pop up is in devotion decks that will effectively play a tapped land when it adds to their devotion. That's not gonna be a thing in edh with singleton cards and color identity limits, but it's definitely a fringe benefit.
I specified non basic land hate because, if you are just going the mld route, there are just too many better rocks to run before these. If you are going non basic hate, however, you are probably running a lot of basics, which makes these actually work (since they need basics) and they are actually helpful because you get to run them as a land drop and still play your basic lands. It's still bad though, and I'd still rather have most other rocks, but at least there its ability is reliable. Multicolor MLD decks tend to want to run more nonbasics that help break the symmetry, like Ancient Tomb or Dakmoor Salvage, so you can recover more quickly thank your opponents. Too many non basics makes the border post ability unreliable.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Rocks at 3 can be good if it's something that survives something like Jokulhaups. Or if it has some other purpose, is bigger, scales, is a cantrip/cycles/cycles from play/scrys, fixes all the mana (in a 3+ color deck, and your meta includes cards like Blood Moon and Back to Basics). This...isn't any of that, and most of those exist without ETBT.
Bouncing a land would qualify, since bouncing a land is really good in (or against) Stax once Winter Orb or its cousins hit the table, except...it requires you also pay 1.
Landfall decks might play it, but probably not, so expect Firewild and Wildfield to see some play in budget decks. This one, however, I've never seen a landfall deck use both blue and black. Maybe Dakkon Blackblade, but you want all the lands to stay on the battlefield (or maybe be blinked or sac'd/discarded and Sun Titan'd) there.
The cards themselves had a simple purpose: To provide one-drops in Alara Reborn, and (of course) to smooth mana for limited. I don't even think landfall played them during ALA/ZEN Standard.
On phasing:
Sounds like you don't play enough basic lands. Even in a 5 color deck with the full cycle of these, I have never been unable to bounce the basic for a borderpost.
Woah Planar Chaos, settle down. You're breaking the colors a bit much. Simic discard 3 and/or golgari burn to the face is straaaaange.
I mean if you're on a budget or whatever and you're running mostly basics then that's fine, but that doesn't mean someone else "doesn't play enough basics". Let alone for the flimsy reason of being able to play aggressively mediocre mana rocks like the borderposts. In most cases the only reasons to run any basics whatsoever in a 4-5 color decks is to either curb your losses against nonbasic hate, or because you're on a budget.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Agreed. While there are valid reasons to go heavier on basic in tri-color decks, for 4 and above I'd consider 12-16 to be basic heavy, and that just isn't enough to make the border posts work turn 1, which is really when you want to use that ability. It can be somewhat useful later, when you don't have lands in hand, to pay 1, bounce the land with it, and drop the land again, at which point its a free rock, but in that case you could have just had it be a refuge and you'd be in the same situation except gaining a life. Outside of fringe scenarios, you only want to use the bounce a land ability when you can't just hard cast it, because hard casting it actually ramps you.
Ana Battlemage is weird. All battle mages are pretty overcosted despite having intriguing effects, and it suffers from the can't blink curse like all kicker creatures. I actually think that the second ability is much more intriguing than the discard 3; for 6 mana you should be casting something that can win you the game, so while a 2/2 that makes an opponent discard 3 is nice, its not enough. In a 1v1 situation, its better, because you only have to worry about one guy and that is serious CA, but in multiplayer its weak. Its second ability, however, can be spicy, because it both removes a blocker and deals damage based on its power, meaning that you are likely taking their biggest creature out of combat, letting you get an extra guy through, while dealing a decent chunk of damage (because you are probably tapping their strongest dude), all for 5 mana. In a lot of metas, this isn't very good, but in metas where there a lots of fatties running around it can steal games. I run a Dong Zhou deck. His etb ability is similar, it just doesn't tap the creature, and it can do serious work. Granted, you can (and I do) blink Dong Zhou, or otherwise reset him or copy him easily, while you can't with this, which makes him much better against a wider variety of decks than the battle mage (if the biggest dudes you are seeing are 5-6 power, this effect isn't worth it as a one shot, but adds up quickly with multiple activations). If you are in a Timmy meta, though, this packs a wallop. If you got dudes running Hamletback Goliaths with 25 counters on them and big ass hydras, this dude takes advantage of that. He's made for battlecruiser metas, and I'm sure spending 8 to make one guy discard 3 and another take 30 from his own fatty is well worth it. I think the thing holding him back is that the people who would think to use him in such a meta probably aren't playing in such a meta. Timmy doesn't really want to spend 8 on a 2/2 with value abilities, he wants to spend 8 on something that's going to swing in for double digits.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Sure, there's things like Blood Moon and Ruination and Wave of Vitriol. There's also things like Veteran Explorer, Oath of Lieges, Extraplanar Lens, Collective Voyage, and Settle the Wreckage. "Why would I ever play basics in my five color deck?" is an actual response I've gotten someone who was freaking out because I played Oath of Lieges and everyone else got way ahead of him. More deliberately, I play about 15 basics in my 5 color decks so that I can play any of the thousand ramp cards that search for a basic land. I'm pretty sure that having access to Cultivate is a plenty valid reason to play basic lands. The fact that I compete just fine on 1% of the budget you're describing is a fringe benefit.
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
Gonti's Luxury Pie
Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)
The Wildfield and Firewild Borderposts were the only mana rocks I allowed myself in my all-multicolour Mayael deck.
I wanted so bad to fit this guy in my Damia deck. But he just doesn't do enough!
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6