Go GW Jasmine Boreal. You can use anthems, pump effects, and vanilla token generating spells along with the normal green ramp and white removal options. I think Jasmine Boreal would be better than Torsten Von Ursus or Sir Shandlar of Eberyn because she is cheaper to cast and easier to acquire as it was printed as a Time Shifted card in Time Spiral.
The other option is RG Jerrard of the Closed Fist (better than The Lady of the Mountain) with a similar theme (anthems, generating vanilla tokens, green ramp, and red removal), and even though you have less pump effects you gain some interesting potential options in red like Confusion in the Ranks.
First the MCU, then Big Bang Theory, then Game of Thrones, and now MTG:Salvation... I at least knew the first three were coming to an end well beforehand, but I am rather surprised to see this happen. I guess the curse of Curse finally caught up to the site.
But still, it is good to know that people like Cryogen and Feyd Ruin are in charge of putting together a new site. Although I am nowhere near as close to people here as I was at MTG:News, its still my de facto MTG home and its good to know that it will live on in some fashion (as opposed to rather undignified ending News had...).
The best comparison I can make with Urza, Lord High Artificer is with Prossh, Skyraider of Kher. Both are infinite with a particular card (Paradox Engine vs. Food Chain), and both cover two different bases with what the decks needs to function (Urza provides a mana engine along with the mini-Mind's Desire vs. Prossh providing Fodder and a sac outlet). The biggest difference here is the cost (Urza only costing 4 mana versus 7 for Prossh is a huge difference) and teh built-in win-con (one you go off, you will play your whole deck with Urza vs. Prossh needing a Purphoros-type effect to win). Prossh does give you access to 3 colors where Urza only gives you access to one, but when that one color is blue its pretty even on that front. So while we all know that Prossh can be pretty powerful, I would expect Urza to be in the same ballpark but slightly better; you can build him to maximize your ability to go infinite and lock up the board with stax peieces to bide you time, or you can build the deck in a more "fair" fashion and probably still have a really good deck that isn't miserable to play with/against.
The issue then becomes what does a "fair" Urza deck look like. It's obviously an artifact-centric deck, probably with cards that produce artifact tokens like Sai, Master Thopterist, Efficient Construction, Thopter Spy Network, Tezzeret, Artifice Master, Genesis Chamber (extra saucy because you can tap it for mana to turn it off on other player's turns), Thopter Assembly), etc. I think that even this kind of deck has the potential for some really strong shenanigans without being annoying.
For a competitive list, it needs more Intruder Alarm for more Roon shenanigans. Throw in a critter that taps for two mana like a leveled-up Joraga Treespeaker and you can blink to your hearts content.
I'm also a big fan of Toothy, Imaginary Friend in my Brago, King Eternal blink deck, although the wording on Roon may make this less attractive (Roon puts the creature back into play end of turn versus immediately, so Toothy wouldn't be in play when you draw the cards off it). It still works very well with Eldrazi Displacer, Deadeye Navigator, and Conjurer's Closet though, so maybe its worth a look.
Magus of PonderU
Creature - Human Wizard :Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle your library.
Draw a card.
1/1
That would be Magus of Ponder.
That would also be horribly overpowered. Compare it to literally any looter.
Whoops. I forgot to add the "sacrifice Magus of Ponder". My bad.
Either way, calling Pondering Mage a "Magus of Ponder" is horribly misleading.
You do not need to dedicate a tribal deck to brinegrs since there are only 5. But they are 5 things that can be considered good stuff. (well maybe not green)
You don't have to build th deck around just the bringers, sure. But Morophon only discount one tribe at a time, so to cast free bringers, you have to pick "bringer" with Morophon, and which point it's unclear what the rest of your deck is.
Your deck is full of Arcane Adaptation and Conspiracy (unfortunately, Xenograft doesn't work). That way, you can choose pretty much anything with Morophon, drop one of these on the same creature type, then go to town. I vote Scarecow...
Wow, I'm liking the new painlands! Will properly add them in any deck that supports them.
I totally agree with this, but this is essentially a continuation of the Horizon Canopy cycle. Lands sacrificing themselves to draw cards are typically never this cheap, with Horizon Canopy being the total outlier of the group. Compare this to Blighted Cataract, Memorial to Genius, and Cephalid Coliseum, and you can see how much of a discount you are getting (on top of it being a dual land). Fiery Islet is totally going in my Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind deck, and I'm also considering some of the others.
Magus of PonderU
Creature - Human Wizard , sacrifice Magus of Ponder: Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle your library.
Draw a card.
1/1
That would be Magus of Ponder. Pondering Mage is unplayable, especially given that we already had an ETB Brainstorm in Riverwise Augur at 4 mana and that sees zero play.
EDIT: Added "sacrifice Magus of Ponder" to the activation cost....
In another thread, I commented that Shamans, Humans, and Spellshapers are all viable candidates. None of them currently have good commanders to lead their tribe, and they are spread out among enough colors that it makes some sense to have a 5-color option for your general. Either way you go, I think you need a tribe that at least wants to be heavy green so that you can a)ramp up to the 7 mana needed to cast Morophon, the Boundless, and b) be able to sufficiently fix your mana for the times that Morophon isn't on the battlefield or for your non-tribal spells. With that in mind, I think Shamans and Humans have enough payoffs and are sufficiently green to make a lot of sense.
A ANY TRIBAL YOU WANT LEGEND THAT DOESN’T SUCK!!!!
What obscure tribe you guys gonna make with this guy?
This is actually a tougher nut to crack than "pick a tribe any go to town". My gut reaction was Slivers, but this is just so much worse that the options you already have. The cards this would be cool with are things like the Nephilim or potentially the Bringers (assuming the effect of Morophon affects alternate costs), but those "tribes" don't really have enough to justify building a deck around them. All the 5-color tribes like Elementals, Dragons, Allies, Slivers, Scarecrows, etc. all have a good Commander already, so you would have to really go deep with something like Shamans, Spellshapers, or Humans for this to make sense.
Troop SurgexGG
Enchantment
Troop Surge enters the battlefield with X charge counters. Creatures you control get +X/+X where X is the number of charge counters on Troop Surge.
Sam-I-AmWGR
Legendary Creature
Whenever a Boar enters the battlefield or attacks, draw a card or return an Egg from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever an Egg enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice it. If you do, Sam I am deals 5 damage to each opponent.
0/2 “I do so like Green Eggs and Ham. Thank you, thank you, Sam-I-Am.”
Next - A commander that steals (permanently or temporarily) non-creature permanents.
Koya-San, Shenyen Master2W
Legendary Creature - Human Monk
Prowess XU: Each player puts the top X cards of their library into their graveyard. XR: Exile target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard with converted mana cost X or less. Copy that card and play the copy without paying its mana cost.
1/3
Next - Creates tokens under another players' control and/or causes you to get tokens for other players doing things.
I'm starting to think that this was an April Fool's joke.... the cake is a lie.
In all seriousness, I had just opened up a TO account with the intention of putting all my decks there when this announcement came out. I held off doing anything with the hopes of just keeping everything here on MTGS. 4-1/2 months since the announcement, we don't even have any information about what is going on. Even bad news would be better than no news at this point.
My favorite Magic card is probably Oversold Cemetery. Reusing and abusing the graveyard for fun and profit has always been one of my favorite things to do.
The sig editor is telling me there is a 512 character limit, so it won't let me "fix" the mana tags in my signature. Furthermore, it must also be counting the url in each link as part of the character limit.
Pretty much. At the time it was printed, its main usage would have been to pay Echo or Upkeep costs.
The other option is RG Jerrard of the Closed Fist (better than The Lady of the Mountain) with a similar theme (anthems, generating vanilla tokens, green ramp, and red removal), and even though you have less pump effects you gain some interesting potential options in red like Confusion in the Ranks.
But still, it is good to know that people like Cryogen and Feyd Ruin are in charge of putting together a new site. Although I am nowhere near as close to people here as I was at MTG:News, its still my de facto MTG home and its good to know that it will live on in some fashion (as opposed to rather undignified ending News had...).
The issue then becomes what does a "fair" Urza deck look like. It's obviously an artifact-centric deck, probably with cards that produce artifact tokens like Sai, Master Thopterist, Efficient Construction, Thopter Spy Network, Tezzeret, Artifice Master, Genesis Chamber (extra saucy because you can tap it for mana to turn it off on other player's turns), Thopter Assembly), etc. I think that even this kind of deck has the potential for some really strong shenanigans without being annoying.
I'm also a big fan of Toothy, Imaginary Friend in my Brago, King Eternal blink deck, although the wording on Roon may make this less attractive (Roon puts the creature back into play end of turn versus immediately, so Toothy wouldn't be in play when you draw the cards off it). It still works very well with Eldrazi Displacer, Deadeye Navigator, and Conjurer's Closet though, so maybe its worth a look.
Whoops. I forgot to add the "sacrifice Magus of Ponder". My bad.
Either way, calling Pondering Mage a "Magus of Ponder" is horribly misleading.
Your deck is full of Arcane Adaptation and Conspiracy (unfortunately, Xenograft doesn't work). That way, you can choose pretty much anything with Morophon, drop one of these on the same creature type, then go to town. I vote Scarecow...
I totally agree with this, but this is essentially a continuation of the Horizon Canopy cycle. Lands sacrificing themselves to draw cards are typically never this cheap, with Horizon Canopy being the total outlier of the group. Compare this to Blighted Cataract, Memorial to Genius, and Cephalid Coliseum, and you can see how much of a discount you are getting (on top of it being a dual land). Fiery Islet is totally going in my Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind deck, and I'm also considering some of the others.
Creature - Human Wizard
Draw a card.
1/1
That would be Magus of Ponder. Pondering Mage is unplayable, especially given that we already had an ETB Brainstorm in Riverwise Augur at 4 mana and that sees zero play.
EDIT: Added "sacrifice Magus of Ponder" to the activation cost....
This is actually a tougher nut to crack than "pick a tribe any go to town". My gut reaction was Slivers, but this is just so much worse that the options you already have. The cards this would be cool with are things like the Nephilim or potentially the Bringers (assuming the effect of Morophon affects alternate costs), but those "tribes" don't really have enough to justify building a deck around them. All the 5-color tribes like Elementals, Dragons, Allies, Slivers, Scarecrows, etc. all have a good Commander already, so you would have to really go deep with something like Shamans, Spellshapers, or Humans for this to make sense.
Deep Forest Hermit is officially my favorite card of the set no matter what else gets spoiled...
Enchantment
Troop Surge enters the battlefield with X charge counters. Creatures you control get +X/+X where X is the number of charge counters on Troop Surge.
Next - Brago, King Eternal
Legendary Creature
Whenever a Boar enters the battlefield or attacks, draw a card or return an Egg from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever an Egg enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice it. If you do, Sam I am deals 5 damage to each opponent.
0/2
“I do so like Green Eggs and Ham. Thank you, thank you, Sam-I-Am.”
Next - A commander that steals (permanently or temporarily) non-creature permanents.
Legendary Creature - Human Monk
Prowess
XU: Each player puts the top X cards of their library into their graveyard.
XR: Exile target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard with converted mana cost X or less. Copy that card and play the copy without paying its mana cost.
1/3
Next - Creates tokens under another players' control and/or causes you to get tokens for other players doing things.