So, to conclude: there are no *good* reasons to run this guy over Phyrexian Altar, although some corner synergies with certain decks may pose an exception.
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!
So, to conclude: there are no *good* reasons to run this guy over Phyrexian Altar, although some corner synergies with certain decks may pose an exception.
It's EDH. Corner synergies with certain decks are the best reasons to run cards.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
So, to conclude: there are no *good* reasons to run this guy over Phyrexian Altar, although some corner synergies with certain decks may pose an exception.
It's EDH. Corner synergies with certain decks are the best reasons to run cards.
Yeah, I mentioned Null Rod, which is a corner case, except Null Rod is very common either to hose artifact-based strategies (affinity, eggs), or as a Stax card with Mycosynth Lattice. I'll admit it's worthless when you have both cards in that little combo out, though.
Anyway, when are we getting a new card? Oh, hell, I'll temp until tstorm823 comes back. How do you guys feel about Commune with Nature? Anyone?
It's filtering, and can be playable if you have a critical mass, but the possible whiff puts it at 4/10 for me: Good in decks where you have a lot of creatures, bad anywhere else.
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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!
These spells are weird. They are sorceries or instants that help you dig for a permanent. Meaning you don’t want to run a lot of them (so you can’t make a green spellslinger deck from them) because you want to hit the type of permanent.
This has to be one of the better ones. Dig five for a critter for one is good. I like Kruphix’s Insight for enchantress.
So, to conclude: there are no *good* reasons to run this guy over Phyrexian Altar, although some corner synergies with certain decks may pose an exception.
Don't you tell me what cards I can run ..you don't know me or my meta!
Sorry about the brief hiatus. I was at a campground for a few days that was supposed to have competent wifi and kinda didn't.
I don't mind the green style of cantrip at all, but they're more than twice as good when they build in the option of picking a land. I probably would not play this card.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I've never played this. Generally, green "dig for a card" cards are not great, because they are specific and thus have a some-percentage fail rate. They are also bad in redundancy, as they tend to exacerbate their own fail-rates. Ponder, Preordain, Opt, Impulse, and Serum Visions draw a card always and are in a color to reward casting tons of instants and sorceries. Meanwhile, cards like Commune with Nature and related spells Lair Delve and Lead the Stampede are super awkward, because they are non-creature spells that need you to fill your deck with Creatures. This effect gets a little better if it can hit lands (as seen in Ancient Stirrings, Oath of Nissa, Commune with Dinosaurs, and Adventurous Impulse) as that dramatically drops the odds of total failure, but it still isn't amazing. The effect is at its best when it sends the cards to the 'yard instead of the hand, so I do play Satyr Wayfinder, Mulch, Commune with the Gods, and Gather the Pack a little bit more, but most of those find themselves outclassed by Grisly Salvage (instant) or Tracker's Instincts (flashback) in a graveyard manipulation deck.
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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
So, to conclude: there are no *good* reasons to run this guy over Phyrexian Altar, although some corner synergies with certain decks may pose an exception.
It's EDH. Corner synergies with certain decks are the best reasons to run cards.
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!
It's filtering, and can be playable if you have a critical mass, but the possible whiff puts it at 4/10 for me: Good in decks where you have a lot of creatures, bad anywhere else.
I don't think it's good even in decks with high creature density. Risk of whiffing always exists, and I'd say the possibility for selection is offset by being forced to reveal it.
I ran this back in the day in standard, trying to make kiki-combo work in standard with intruder alarm. It was...not great.
Natural Selection isnt that bad.... at least it isn't overcost, actually an instant and does something outside of its colorpie.Looks more like something blue or red for chaos shuffle.
Wait a minute. Is Natural Selection the same creature as Teacher's Pet? I mean, they have different-colored feathers. But they look very similar.
More on topic, I like Gather the Pack a lot more than Commune just because it can grab two. If you're running these sorts of effects in the first place then you've probably got enough creatures in the deck to get two hits.
Natural selection sucks as card selection, it's ponder without drawing a card, though I could see running it in metas that have a ton of top of the library tutors flyih around as a form of disruption. Instant speed means you can fire it off after someone uses a vampiric tutor to find their wincon, giving green a way to answer thibgs it couldn't otherwise. I'd have to be both reasonably certain I'd see at least one top of the library tutor a game and that disrupting said tutor would be a crucial play before running it, but there are definitely metas where you can expect that.
These commune with nature styoe cards almost universally suck, including the ones that let you get a creature or land. They do too little and restrict deck building too much. Oath of Nissa at least does something useful in superfriends even if it wiffs, so it's search is more of a semi cantrip added to an enchantment that makes casting all your walkers easier, so it's worthwhile. Ancient stirrings is good because in the right deck it never wiffs. It hits lands, artifacts, artifact creatures, devoid spells, and colorless eldrazi, as well as karns and ugin. A deck splashing green focused on Eldrazi or artifacts will nearly always hit with this and have it serve as a better ponder. Glissa the traitor loves it for instance. It's narrow, but it's legit good at what it does.
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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!
More on topic, I like Gather the Pack a lot more than Commune just because it can grab two. If you're running these sorts of effects in the first place then you've probably got enough creatures in the deck to get two hits.
And then there's Lead the Stampede. Obviously the risk of a whiff is the same, but the potential ROI is much, much greater.
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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!
Oh man, do I love me some Exotic Orchard. This thing is an absolute auto-include for 4 and 5-color decks. It's virtually a second Command Tower. And even in the absolute worst case scenarios, it's seldom worse than a dual land. Definitely one of the most underplayed lands in Commander.
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Aggro: WUBRGHorde of Notions Goodstuff, RUBCheesy Aggro, GR Xenagod Gruul Goodstuff
Control: GWBGhave, Guru of Adaptability, UBWrexial, Milling Deep UAzami, Lady of No Infinite Combos GWU Derevi, Tempo Beats
Other: URGRiku of Too Much Mana, WUBRG Sliver Queen Enchantress
Oh man, do I love me some Exotic Orchard. This thing is an absolute auto-include for 4 and 5-color decks. It's virtually a second Command Tower. And even in the absolute worst case scenarios, it's seldom worse than a dual land. Definitely one of the most underplayed lands in Commander.
I have often avoided using this card for completely illogical reasons. It seems I most easily recall the occasional time it doesn't give me a color I want it to, but forget that it is practically never anything less than a tri-colored land (and often much better than that) with no downside whatsoever. I suspect that sort of selective cognitive bias is one reason it might be played less often than should probably be the case.
It's one of the common offenders of eye-rolling bad jokes at my table;
"oh, so exotic!"
Almost just as bad ad they guy saying "what a waste" every time someone landfalls while playing a colorless deck.
Per the card - it's great depending on the number and spread of colors in the deck and what your opponents tend to play. Green decks that don't ramp hard will like it. Non-green but blue/x/x decks will like it. Opponents like to play 3+color decks, then it's pretty good. But if you're just in a 2-color deck or a meta full of 1 to 2-color opponent decks, then maybe not so good.
Worst case scenario, you can use this to fulfill the colorless component of spells. That's really not much of a worst case scenario. Cheap as chips, too.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.
Yeah, I mentioned Null Rod, which is a corner case, except Null Rod is very common either to hose artifact-based strategies (affinity, eggs), or as a Stax card with Mycosynth Lattice. I'll admit it's worthless when you have both cards in that little combo out, though.
You can also use it in decks that either reward you for playing creatures or punish players for playing noncreatures.
Anyway, when are we getting a new card? Oh, hell, I'll temp until tstorm823 comes back. How do you guys feel about Commune with Nature? Anyone?
It's filtering, and can be playable if you have a critical mass, but the possible whiff puts it at 4/10 for me: Good in decks where you have a lot of creatures, bad anywhere else.
On phasing:
This has to be one of the better ones. Dig five for a critter for one is good. I like Kruphix’s Insight for enchantress.
(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'
Don't you tell me what cards I can run ..you don't know me or my meta!
I don't mind the green style of cantrip at all, but they're more than twice as good when they build in the option of picking a land. I probably would not play this card.
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
Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.
I ran this back in the day in standard, trying to make kiki-combo work in standard with intruder alarm. It was...not great.
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
Did you know that there's some people who run Natural Selection? Man that card is bad.
Soldier of Fortune is a lot better though
More on topic, I like Gather the Pack a lot more than Commune just because it can grab two. If you're running these sorts of effects in the first place then you've probably got enough creatures in the deck to get two hits.
- Rabid Wombat
These commune with nature styoe cards almost universally suck, including the ones that let you get a creature or land. They do too little and restrict deck building too much. Oath of Nissa at least does something useful in superfriends even if it wiffs, so it's search is more of a semi cantrip added to an enchantment that makes casting all your walkers easier, so it's worthwhile. Ancient stirrings is good because in the right deck it never wiffs. It hits lands, artifacts, artifact creatures, devoid spells, and colorless eldrazi, as well as karns and ugin. A deck splashing green focused on Eldrazi or artifacts will nearly always hit with this and have it serve as a better ponder. Glissa the traitor loves it for instance. It's narrow, but it's legit good at what it does.
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!
And then there's Lead the Stampede. Obviously the risk of a whiff is the same, but the potential ROI is much, much greater.
On phasing:
More often than not, this is a pain free City of Brass.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Aggro: WUBRGHorde of Notions Goodstuff, RUB Cheesy Aggro, GR Xenagod Gruul Goodstuff
Control: GWBGhave, Guru of Adaptability, UBWrexial, Milling Deep UAzami, Lady of No Infinite Combos GWU Derevi, Tempo Beats
Other: URGRiku of Too Much Mana, WUBRG Sliver Queen Enchantress
I have often avoided using this card for completely illogical reasons. It seems I most easily recall the occasional time it doesn't give me a color I want it to, but forget that it is practically never anything less than a tri-colored land (and often much better than that) with no downside whatsoever. I suspect that sort of selective cognitive bias is one reason it might be played less often than should probably be the case.
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK
"oh, so exotic!"
Almost just as bad ad they guy saying "what a waste" every time someone landfalls while playing a colorless deck.
Per the card - it's great depending on the number and spread of colors in the deck and what your opponents tend to play. Green decks that don't ramp hard will like it. Non-green but blue/x/x decks will like it. Opponents like to play 3+color decks, then it's pretty good. But if you're just in a 2-color deck or a meta full of 1 to 2-color opponent decks, then maybe not so good.
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!