Shame we can't sacrifice five of those to cast Ramos from anywhere, that'd be fun.
Yu-gi-oh, is that you?
Consider we have Spirit of the Night long before YuGiOh, I'd say it's a Magic tradition.
I call them named sets, the first of which was Tron. Yeah, it's pretty old. (I mean, I'm happy to mock Yugioh, just because of Yugioh GX. The kids of that era refer to Generation X as Mom and Dad.)
Anyway, I like Hateflayer. That snake Yog-Sothoth thing could use Cryptolith Rite and enough mana to wipe out anything that doesn't have shroud, hexproof, Inviolability, or a relevant protection ability. The big problem is costing seven mana.
6/10 It's an awesome ability, but you have to have enough mana.
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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!
Hey, that's exactly what I was hoping I was clicking!
I love the darker Disney villains. So, more evil: Frollo (genocide, infanticide, rape, really, the list goes on) or the Coachman (has a child slave ring, oh, and he never gets his comeuppance)?
I should mention it has one weakness: I actually have a story where a friend played Hellfire on my Ghave, Guru of Spores deck. I quickly tapped out and made as many saprolings as I could. Never play Hellfire against tokens. (Unfortunately, it's not one of the few wipes token decks can use, like Austere Command or March of Souls.)
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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!
I wish I had this card in my collection when I was younger to reinforce my mother's belief that Magic:The Gathering was a corrupting game for youth. Also, price.
Hey, it's only $60 on StarCity! I need to find a price for this neat Italian one I got a while back...for $1.
Italian Hellfires go for about 10-15 euros, so...
Anyway, fun card but yeah, screw the RL.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I don't know if it's a local thing caused by one particular deck, but Karn has a reputation for being Stax in the most vintage way. That being said, this is the clearly the best Karn.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
The Moxmunching Martian himself, good flavor/ability tie-in that he was fairly powerful but also a stout pacifist, though apparently his pacifism doesn't extend to player faces.
Riku of Two Reflections - Copy, then copy again | Shattergang Brothers - Token Sac&Recur | Gahiji, Honored One - Multiple attack steps | Karametra, God of Harvests - Landfall, Creaturefall, Shroud | Ruhan of the Fomori - Stop hitting yourself | Zurgo Helmsmasher - Equipment&Wraths | Crosis, the Purger - Dragon Tribal Reanimator | Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - No stax, just tap and untap fun | Anafenza, the Foremost - Enduring Ideal Enchantress | Sharuum, the Hegemon - Sphinx Tribal Control | Noyan Dar - Spellslinger | The Mimeoplasm - Counterpalooza
Lists can be found here.
Still convinced the guy on Beseech the Queen is wearing a Mitra-type hat. Wake up sheeple!
He's a pacifist, but not an environmentalist because he kills all the lands.
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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'm assuming that symbol on his torso is the Thran word for "truth". (An aside, speaking of golems: I have a friend who swears the Regis' dots can be connected to form highly stylized versions of alef, mem, and tav, but I don't see it.)
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!
My first legendary creature, my first commander, and a card that will forever hold a special place in my heart. My first Karn deck was "all the infinite comboes great and small", and ended up with a bad reputation. Karn still does good work in the 99 of Daretti though, where he acts as a surprisingly stout blocker for my wall of 'walkers while also occasionally enabling shenanigans.
This thread outlined the most infamous stax nonsense of Mycosynth Lattice as a mass 'geddon, but for those who don't know the lesser-known Karnfather tricks:
- Lesser known but still effective is the ability to set up a chain with Dross Scorpion thanks to Karn; obviously the voltaic combo is better but I've managed a kill at least once due to the ability to turn small artifacts into creatures that I then sac to some effect for value.
- The STAX works so well because you can animate Static Orb, Howling Mine, Blinkmoth Urn, and Storage Matrix and swing to make them asymmetrical, granting YOU extra cards and mana while depriving opponents of untaps. Granted, it's way safer to use Clock of Omens or Lodestone Myr for this purpose and that also fuels Winter Orb, but Plan B is nice.
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
My Karn deck has somehow gained a reputation as a control deck, despite really not being one. Seriously, if there's an Erratic Portal on the table and you control any creatures you don't want bounced, don't tap out!Null Brooch is a Negate everybody knows is there, and which under normal circumstances has a very steep cost (although it's not so steep if I've got Bottled Cloister on the table...)
And of course both Ulamogs, All is Dust, Ugin, and Spine of Ish Sah are going to be in the deck, because colorless has to pay out the nose to get what it wants.
Obviously there's the combo potential. My personal favourites with this are Clock of Omens and Voltaic Key. Without a brown deck anymore though, there's only so much you can do with an inordinate pile of x, and I prefer to veer away from combo, so I probably play this less than I could.
Not going to lie, if it had " : Do nothing." and " : Do nothing.", then I'd still use it. Darksteel Relic is one of my favorite cards, if that explains my previous statement.
I'm still trying to figure out if I should use it in decks that don't combo with it. Is it a good enough mana rock?
I don't think it is.
I agree it isn't good enough. Unless you run the Rings of Brighthearth combo or have a few other ways to untap it for free such as Unwinding Clock or Seedborn Muse, you are most often better off with 2 cmc rocks or the other usual 3cmc suspects. I suppose you can use this as a one shot battery of sorts for a big x spell or something on a following turn, but that generally seems like a waste of a card slot. And Mana Vault does that much better also.
I'm still trying to figure out if I should use it in decks that don't combo with it. Is it a good enough mana rock?
I don't think it is.
I've cut it from every deck where it doesn't have specific synergy - I think currently my only copies are in use in Daretti (since it can be sacced and recurred, or combo with Rings if I'm feeling nasty), Mairsil, the Pretender (since it grants him two abilities including the crucial ability to untap), and Sygg (where it can create an arbitrarily large Wake Thrasher). I'd much rather use Worn Powerstone, and even that isn't an autoinclude, for my 3 CMC mana rock. Typically though, I consider paying more than two for a mana rock to be counterproductive.
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I'm still trying to figure out if I should use it in decks that don't combo with it. Is it a good enough mana rock?
I don't think it is.
I agree it isn't good enough. Unless you run the Rings of Brighthearth combo or have a few other ways to untap it for free such as Unwinding Clock or Seedborn Muse, you are most often better off with 2 cmc rocks or the other usual 3cmc suspects. I suppose you can use this as a one shot battery of sorts for a big x spell or something on a following turn, but that generally seems like a waste of a card slot. And Mana Vault does that much better also.
I mostly play it, and Grim Monolith and Mana Vault, in decks where the Commander is a mana sink. Seedborn Muse fits into that theme, obviously, and synergizes with them so well. Of the three, I have to say the best is Mana Vault.
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 call them named sets, the first of which was Tron. Yeah, it's pretty old. (I mean, I'm happy to mock Yugioh, just because of Yugioh GX. The kids of that era refer to Generation X as Mom and Dad.)
Anyway, I like Hateflayer. That snake Yog-Sothoth thing could use Cryptolith Rite and enough mana to wipe out anything that doesn't have shroud, hexproof, Inviolability, or a relevant protection ability. The big problem is costing seven mana.
6/10 It's an awesome ability, but you have to have enough mana.
On phasing:
Sweet card, I should totally be playing this in my Olivia deck... "mid: $83.80". Darn Legends.
edit: dang mobile...
(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'
Hey, that's exactly what I was hoping I was clicking!
I love the darker Disney villains. So, more evil: Frollo (genocide, infanticide, rape, really, the list goes on) or the Coachman (has a child slave ring, oh, and he never gets his comeuppance)?
Anyway, when I play Hellfire now, I'm not the one paying.
I should mention it has one weakness: I actually have a story where a friend played Hellfire on my Ghave, Guru of Spores deck. I quickly tapped out and made as many saprolings as I could. Never play Hellfire against tokens. (Unfortunately, it's not one of the few wipes token decks can use, like Austere Command or March of Souls.)
On phasing:
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
Gonti's Luxury Pie
Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)
Italian Hellfires go for about 10-15 euros, so...
Anyway, fun card but yeah, screw the RL.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I don't know if it's a local thing caused by one particular deck, but Karn has a reputation for being Stax in the most vintage way. That being said, this is the clearly the best Karn.
Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.
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!
One-mana land destruction is sweet. He also has a weird interaction with Doran, the Siege Tower that makes Volrath look ethical by comparison.
On phasing:
This thread outlined the most infamous stax nonsense of Mycosynth Lattice as a mass 'geddon, but for those who don't know the lesser-known Karnfather tricks:
- Karn can make it much easier to combo off with Voltaic Construct; indeed with Karn and that any artifact that taps for 3 or more and has a CMC (Dreamstone Hedron, Grim Monolith, Mana Vault, Basalt Monolith, Thran Dynamo, or Gilded Lotus) goes infinite. From there, it is also much easier to use and abuse other artifacts as a funnel for the infinity engine - Trading Post, Tower of Fortunes, Codex Shredder, Staff of Nin, and Planar Portal all infinite out as well (all of those are cards that you probably wanted anyways).
- Lesser known but still effective is the ability to set up a chain with Dross Scorpion thanks to Karn; obviously the voltaic combo is better but I've managed a kill at least once due to the ability to turn small artifacts into creatures that I then sac to some effect for value.
- It is extremely funny to animate Akroma's Memorial to build a better Akroma! Darksteel Forge also becomes a nice beater and you'll want it anyway due to the comboes with Nevinyrral's Disk and the liklihood that you'll be cheating it out with fast mana, Mycosynth Golem, and Kuldotha Forgemaster.
- The STAX works so well because you can animate Static Orb, Howling Mine, Blinkmoth Urn, and Storage Matrix and swing to make them asymmetrical, granting YOU extra cards and mana while depriving opponents of untaps. Granted, it's way safer to use Clock of Omens or Lodestone Myr for this purpose and that also fuels Winter Orb, but Plan B is nice.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
And of course both Ulamogs, All is Dust, Ugin, and Spine of Ish Sah are going to be in the deck, because colorless has to pay out the nose to get what it wants.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Speaking of mono-gray decks, here's a classic brown card for all you artifact fans out there. The combo-rock itself has appeared.
(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'
Also, Mesmeric Orb.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
I don't think it is.
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
I agree it isn't good enough. Unless you run the Rings of Brighthearth combo or have a few other ways to untap it for free such as Unwinding Clock or Seedborn Muse, you are most often better off with 2 cmc rocks or the other usual 3cmc suspects. I suppose you can use this as a one shot battery of sorts for a big x spell or something on a following turn, but that generally seems like a waste of a card slot. And Mana Vault does that much better also.
I've cut it from every deck where it doesn't have specific synergy - I think currently my only copies are in use in Daretti (since it can be sacced and recurred, or combo with Rings if I'm feeling nasty), Mairsil, the Pretender (since it grants him two abilities including the crucial ability to untap), and Sygg (where it can create an arbitrarily large Wake Thrasher). I'd much rather use Worn Powerstone, and even that isn't an autoinclude, for my 3 CMC mana rock. Typically though, I consider paying more than two for a mana rock to be counterproductive.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
You forgot Paradox Engine.
I mostly play it, and Grim Monolith and Mana Vault, in decks where the Commander is a mana sink. Seedborn Muse fits into that theme, obviously, and synergizes with them so well. Of the three, I have to say the best is Mana Vault.
There's also Mesmeric Orb, for your Laboratory Maniac/dredge/reanimator needs.
On phasing: