MTG Salvation

Eye of Singularity?

I swear that there's another card with this basic effect that isn't a World Enchantment (essentially making creatures/nonland permanents legendary) but I can't think of it off hand. But depending on your meta, being a World Enchantment can be a bonus.

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Agreed, I really dont' think you need much to make up the ~2 mana you're overpaying for the creature. Theoretically, I'd be looking to target removal or maybe a bread and butter, value common (ie something I should have multiple copies of). I mean, really, does thins guy need to come with anything better than a Hill Giant to be worth playing?

The real question that should probably be asked is, where's the line where this card isn't worth it? Most of the uncommons I sort of feel like this is maybe a third-fouth pick rare, and that you'll often want to pick up high-end uncommons before picking this guy. (I'm not going to lie, I'd love to pick up a Screeching Seahawk after this guy and just go all-in).

Quote from Toonamiguy

Quote from XnFM

Quote from Darcykun

I'm not sure why you have to be so durdly with her.

Who doesn't love being durdlely?

Personally I think all of the silly things you can do by building around her recursion ability is the real incentive to want to play her. Honestly I'm considering replacing my Vela the Night Clad token deck with a deck built around Marchesa. (They'd basically be the same deck, so i don't see the point in building both. Vela tries to build a token swarm and wears down life totals, then blow out the table with a sac engine or a wrath, whereas I'd probably being trying to leverage ETB damage in Marchesa with Purphoros, Flayer of the Hatebound, and Warstorm Surge while running Vela for value.)

I'd be interested in seeing that Vela list

This is the most recent version of the list that I have. It needs a little bit of work and I haven't updated the deck for Theros block yet, but the basic framework is there .(This is the first time I've actually looked at the list in a while, and I didn't realize I was so low on answers to threats on the board. I'm going to have to work on that soon.)

*Link is to a google doc

Quote from DirkGently

EDIT: actually, graft is so absurd with marchesa that it's probably worth running junk like helium squirter. It's like a mini-mikaeus that recurs itself. imagine it with butcher of malakir or glen elendra archmage...it just gets silly.

I was thinking the same thing earlier when I was looking of cards in her color identity that interact with +1/+1 counters. Frankly, being able to provide most any of your creatures flying fo 1 isn't that bad, if you're leveraging the card for something else.

Quote from Darcykun

I'm not sure why you have to be so durdly with her.

Who doesn't love being durdlely?

Personally I think all of the silly things you can do by building around her recursion ability is the real incentive to want to play her. Honestly I'm considering replacing my Vela the Night Clad token deck with a deck built around Marchesa. (They'd basically be the same deck, so i don't see the point in building both. Vela tries to build a token swarm and wears down life totals, then blow out the table with a sac engine or a wrath, whereas I'd probably being trying to leverage ETB damage in Marchesa with Purphoros, Flayer of the Hatebound, and Warstorm Surge while running Vela for value.)

Quote from Steveita

I'm loving this gal, she's so "build around me" with unusual cards. You don't think Grixis when you think +1+1 counter deck

The thing is, there have been so many mechanics that interact with +1/+1 counters at this point that there actually are a bunch of playable cards in UBR that have or interact with +1/+1 counters. There could very easily be a decent deck there, unfortunately, I think the right play in that deck would be to build towards a Purphoros kill.

edit: fixed the typo that set off the profanity filter.

I dread the Pirates of the Carribean references this Parley mechanic is going to cause . . . .

As far as the actual card goes, I think it's pretty cool. She's a fragile, WG, Howling Mine, without the drawback (other players draw first) that sometimes gives you bonus mana. I'm not sure where I would want to play her, outside of Phelddagrif, or how to build her deck, but I woldn't mind playing her at all.

I've been interested in Pharika as more of a political tool for something like a Rock based midrange-control deck. Being able to spend to mana to give your opponents/allies a peice of removal mid-combat seems pretty good to me. Unfortunately I know I'm not a good enough EDH deckbuilder to construct the basic frame for that deck.

My personal favorite is Norin the Wary. Being able to take a card that's essentially unplayable* in every other format and to use it to power out ridiculous shenanigans is the best feeling.

*If a Purphoros-based deck shows up on Modern I guess he might make an appearance as a form of inevitability, but that's still a bit of a reach.

If I were building around that theme, these would be some of the first cards I would look at.

Callous Oppressor
Chamber of Manipulation
Empress Galina
Helm of Possession
Memnarch
Overtaker
Vedalken Shackles

IMO, if you're using slots in your deck on cards that just steal your opponent's creatures a single time, you're not going to be doing it enough to support a theme (unless you're running like, 12 of them). These are some of the least labor-intensive ways to repeatedly steal creatures from your opponents.

What are you looking to do with the deck aside from faerie tribal? I did a quick gatherer run of faeries, and cards that reference faeries, and there really isn't much there to build around. There are some interesting and powerful cards, but the vast majority of faeries are a too underpowered to really consider outside of a super-casual meta. Off the bat, I'd consider:

Notorious Throng
Bitterblossom
Faerie Harbinger
Faerie Tauntings
Faerie Trickery
Final-Sting Faerie (If only this had flash )
Glen Elendra Archmage
Glen Elendra Liege
Mistbind Clique
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Oona's Blackguard
Puppeteer Clique
Scion of Oona
Sower of Temptation
Spellstutter Sprite
Sprite Noble
Vendilion Clique
Wydwen, the Biting Gale
Cairn Wanderer
Shapesharer

20 cards doesn't really feel like enough to be a fully supported theme, and some of these cards are parasitic enough that they probably woulnd't be adequately supported with what's here. There's definately the beginings of a sort of aggro-control token deck here, which could be pretty cool, but I get the feeling you're going to end up with more of a faerie sub-theme, than an actual theme.

Someone mentioned Sword of the Paruns in another thread a couple days ago, which seems like it might be one of the easiest ways to toggle Makar for triggers. It's not the cheapest, but you're running Cabal's Coffers anyway right?

I've heard people talking about Mageta the Lion a few times, though I'm not sure how playable he is outside of UW and WB (since you can get more raw cards in those colors) though if you can keep your lands under control, Land Tax should give you enough cards to keep him running.

At a quick glance, all of these seem playable:
Alexi, Zephyr Mage has a powerful enough ability that she probably just needs the right deck to get played.
Bog Witch is probably borderline playable. Discarding things in black doesn't hurt as much as other colors, and getting two extra mana can be pretty good.
Dawnstrider. I heard you like Turbofog bro.
Dreamscape Artist. Blue Harrow is pretty good, and the foil is gorgeous.
Greel, Mind Raker. Mind Twists are good . . . this guy might be able to get there.
Overtaker. This guy should just be pure value. Bin a land or low impact card for an instant speed threaten effect? Yes, please. If you play this correctly it should be a two for one almost every time.
Waterfront Bouncer. I've run this card in Legacy*, so theoretically it should be strong enough to get there. Bouncing a single dude in a multiplaer game isn't really as high-impact though.


*This was about 10 years ago in UG Madness as discard outlets 9 and 10.

Quote from Demonologo Uriel

Two pearls that I discovered recently : riptide shapeshifter and shifty doppelganger :
The first one in the Magic of our days is simply crazy : Name Eldrazi and reveal an Ulamog. Name Golem reveal a Blightsteel Colossus. Name Avatar or Hydra and here you go Progenitus. Name Praetor and Gin-Jitaxias is here. Angel and Iona or Avacyn comes immediately. and so on.

The most amazing thing is that is a blue card, while tutoring fatties into the battlefield is something tipical of green, so it also cover another color, color pie


the doppelganger is also great because it works exactly like a blue Sneak Attack.

I remember some talk a while back about building around Riptide Shapeshifer (and another similar card i that I can't remember the name of). Basically you make sure that all your creatures have a unique creature type and then the shapeshifter becmes a perfect tutor for every creature in your deck. It seems like it would be particularly good UB, so you can easily recur it if you need to.

Quote from FZA

Cards like the Cap are blatant card disadvantage, but against certain decks can still be very effective.

If you exile Prophet of Kruphix, Cyclonic Rift, and Tooth and Nail from a UG deck you're bound to have a much better time in that game.

I run it in my Norin the Wary along with Trading Post for basically this reason, and frankly I'd run in in just about every deck if I have the space. Pulling out cards like Consecrated Sphinx, Mindslaver, and the big Eldrazi out of people's decks goes a long way towards reducing the number of groans over the course of the game. (Though seeing a cap get recurred can cause some groans itself, but it's not the same as when someone Sphinxes up a billion cards.)