To further elaborate on what jskura said; Boros Garrison doesn't target a land. In order to target, the word "target" must be present in the text of the ability. This is why the choice of a land is done on resolution and that choice will be made from any of the lands on the battlefield when the ability resolves. This makes your new mountain a valid choice.
I was playing this deck the other day and it was not really working at all. It took forever to actually close out the game. Most of the reason was because I never got any of my enchantresses to draw cards and when I tutored I had to get other cards to stay alive (like Humility). I struggled to stay relevant in the game and I did all I could to stay alive. The only reason I didn't die was because someone else decided to Fog when a couple of us were attacked. After that, I stabilized but it should have been much better since I had Moat and Sigil of the Empty Throne on the field. But, because I was never drawing enchantments, I could not get anything going.
I started to look through my list and other cards trying to figure out a way to add a little more card drawing or card filtering to the list. I came up with these cards:
Abundance and Pursuit of Knowledge look really good. Abundance isn't really card drawing, but it does help filter my draws so I don't get mana flooded or mana screwed. It hopefully gets me to my enchantments or enchantresses sooner.
When I do get my enchantresses out, I am finding that I am skipping draws anyway since I have so many cards in hand. Pursuit of Knowledge lets me store those skipped draws up for later.
Armistice looks like a decent mana sink but it is expensive. 10 mana and 6 life to opponents to draw two cards seems really overcosted. But, it does give me a way to draw cards when I don't have enchantresses yet. I am not going to include it yet, but it is in the back of my mind in case the other two just aren't good enough.
Looking through my current list, I find that Silent Sentinel and Fires of Yavimaya aren't very good in practice. Sentinel seems good because it can get my enchantments back, but at 7 mana and needing to attack, it never does as much as I want it to. Emeria Shepherd is just much better and even Sun Titan can get quite a few back.
Fires of Yavimaya seemed like a good idea. It gave all my tokens haste and let me alpha strike someone. But, most of the time the tokens were just 1/1's unless I could get Luminarch Ascension on line. The 4/4's that I could create was the only time haste was ever really relevant. I decided that for one card that took a bit to start making tokens anyway it wasn't worth trying to give all my creatures haste. Most of the time I can afford to wait a turn to let those couple extra angels attack.
Nope, because it prevents me from drawing more than one card as well.
As for the rings/monolith/top thing, here's how I explained it on my primer:
After making infinite mana with rings and monolith:
1. Activate the top's draw ability, rings trigger.
2. Pay 2 for the rings' triggered ability, copying the draw abilitity. There are now two 'put sensei's top on top of the library and draw a card' abilities on the stack.
3. The first one resolves (the copy) - you draw a card and put sensei's top on top of the library.
4. The second one resolves - draw a card (which will be sensei's top) and since sensei's top is no longer there to be placed on the library, this part of the ability doesn't happen.
Regarding Chains: Fair enough. I figured the hit you take might be unacceptable, but sometimes it is a way to control others' draws a little more. Leovold does it better obviously.
Thanks for the explanation. Wallycaine got to it before you, but I appreciate the summary. I should have caught that much earlier when I was reading it over, but for some reason it just didn't click.
hold the perimeter Does this trigger only once on the first upkeep, or is it the first upkeep each turn?
You (and your opponents) only get one "first upkeep". After that, you are past your first upkeep so it will no longer trigger. If it meant the first upkeep each turn, it would use Paradox Haze's template.
Each player will get one token for each Hold the Perimeter in Command Zones.
Stranglehold is a good card. I personally don't run it since it isn't an artifact (which makes getting to it harder) but its impact on the game is potent. The big one is the inability for opponents to search their libraries. This way if you start to get out of hand, they can't search up a Bane of Progress to blow you out if you haven't gotten Darksteel Forge online yet.
Thoughts on using Rhystic Study for some card draw? Usually a staple in any blue deck I run.
I have never been a fan of the card. It is powerful for sure, but eventually it just becomes irrelevant. I might be able to make use of it, but I prefer guaranteed draw sources rather than hoping my opponents won't pay the tax. Early game it is great but in most metas players will just pay the one in the late game or just get rid of it.
But, if it works in your meta, it is a good addition.
Good point. I've been throwing around the idea of going the 'normal' route with Sliver Queen but I'm liking the idea of sticking to 3C. I think I may go with Angus. Besides, he's such a cool card haha.
As for Narset, I think people are worried that with her, unlimited turns, land destruction and board wipes will become a thing. I play Kaalia and I'm used to being hated out even though it's not that good in multiplayer, but not sure if I want to have TWO decks like that. We'll see.
I actually started this list with the intention of going 5 color. I started with Cromat as the general though my friend suggested Sliver Queen. I agreed that was a better option since it created creatures which the deck is light on, but I decided to just cut it down to 3 color before trying it out.
Very early in deckbuilding I concluded that red was not good enough to include. Black was awesome and I liked playing the deck as 4 color, but 3 color is the sweet spot for this type of deck. Others work fine as 5 color (Slivers for example) but I think with the mana requirements (many 4, 5, and 6 drops plus double color requirements) meant that it was nowhere near consistent enough with the mana base. And that is with rainbow lands and every dual.
Regarding Narset; that is a huge concern and is one reason I haven't built a non-broken version of her yet. The stigma with Narset is hard to overcome, but I think she can be one of the more fun generals if built to not combo out of nowhere. I think she might even run well as a "Chaos" general since her ability is fairly chaotic already and she has access to red for other chaos effects. And yes, unfortunately Kaalia has a reputation too so I totally understand not wanting to have another "degenerate" general at the helm of your Superfriends deck.
In either case, I think you can find some middle ground that gets you to where you want to be with this type of deck.
Another card I am going to give a try is Regal Behemoth. I think this card could be good to allow me to continue casting my stuff as needed to get a better control over the board. To make room for this, I have decided to cut Mindslicer. This is a card I have been moving away from anyway as it slows the game to a crawl. This deck can take advantage of it but it always felt bad to do.
Updates (I am including my initial cuts for Conspiracy cards so I document them):
Conspiracy brought one new card I want to try out in this deck: Capital Punishment
This card seems like it should be a very good political card and it is hard for my opponents to get a choice that doesn't hurt them in some way. This is also a card that potentially gets rid of problematic indestructible creatures (such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope) if everyone votes to sacrifice (assuming the player with Avacyn has 3 or fewer creatures). Even if it is split, every opponent sacrifices 2 creatures and discards 2 cards. That seems pretty good for 6 mana.
The list as it currently is has these two cards that seem the easiest to cut: Disciple of Griselbrand and Soldevi Adnate. I happen to like the Adnate to help ramp if I need it and the life gain off Disciple isn't really relevant. It was mainly in here as a Sac outlet so my stuff didn't get exiled, but I don't think it is worth taking up a slot.
Recruiter seems very good in this build. I have 18 targets in the deck and some, like Spike Weaver, Eternal Witness, and Reclamation Sage are toolbox options for when I need them. Realm Seekers gets me my utility lands and is a big beater or blocker if I need. Bane of Progress is also a really good target for Recruiter so I have found a spot for that too (I am not entirely sure why I wasn't playing it already).
Regal Behemoth is just another mana doubler plus a card draw as long as I remain the Monarch. I think I shouldn't have too much to worry about in regards to remaining the Monarch, so I think the mana "doubling" should be helpful.
Selvala is massive in this kind of deck. SHe is so good in basically any green deck and this deck is no different. She ramps further into a lot of the big threats and potentially gives me more draws. And, I should almost always have the biggest creature so my opponents won't draw too often from her.
Selvala's Stampede seemed like a fun card to help cheat in a couple creatures. I should always be able to hit at least 3 creatures (unless my hand is totally empty) so for 6 mana, this is pretty good.
Outside of Conspiracy, I am also adding Dryad Arbor as another target for Recruiter and I can get it off Karametra. If I have Soul of the Harvest on board, I can also draw an additional card off it.
As mentioned above, I am also adding Bane of Progress. This card is very good and can be tutored off Recruiter if I need to get rid of a bunch of troublesome Artifacts/Enchantments.
I am cutting a Forest sraight up for Dryad Arbor. Pretty straightforward.
Budoka Gardner is great to get an additional land and his ability when flipped is great. However, I have only ever flipped it once and, while pretty good, I don't think the token is as good as I originally thought it would be. The best thing I ever did with it was sacrifice it to Diamond Valley to gain a bunch of life.
Yavimaya Dryad, Yavimaya Elder, and Kor Cartographer are all decent, but with Selvala and her Stampede, they become less worthwhile. Selvala straight up replaces one of them and Stampede doesn't want to hit any of them. Since Karametra is main source of ramp in this deck, having these cards to ramp (and Elder doesn't even really ramp) are not worth keeping in over the new cards. Kor Cartographer always felt too slow in this deck anyway. The addition of Recruiter of the Guard into Drayd Arbor (if I need it) also somewhat negates losing these cards. Also, while Drayd Arbor is a terrible creature to hit off Stampede, it is the easiest to get out of the way.
Garruk, Primal Hunter is probably the most difficult cut. His ultimate works great with Karametra and his minus keeps my hand full. However, he doesn't have as much sunergy with the rest as I would like. I never count on a planeswalker's ultimate (and I don't think I have ever had his go off) and the loss of card drawing is mitigated with Selvala's card drawing and draing cards from being the Monarch. Garruk's is most definitely better than either of those individually, but with both of them combined I think I can afford to cut him for now. If Regal Behemoth (the card I the most unsure about adding) ends up not working out, Garruk might find his way back in.
I seem to be missing something, but how do you get infinite card draw with these 3 cards? I see the infinite mana with the first two cards, but how does Top give you infinite card draw? I am assuming another card or I am missing something really simple.
It's really easy to miss, but with infinite mana you can copy the second ability of sensei's Divining Top every time you activate it, and then draw the top card of your library along with top, and recast top.
Ah, I see. You draw, put it on top (with the copy of the ability), then draw again (with the initial activation) to get it back in your hand. Infinite mana lets you cast it and you can keep on doing it.
There are obviously outs to it, but there are so many ways to just end the game that once you cut off your opponents from drawing, you should be able to win wihout too much hassle.
Have you considered Chains of Mephistopheles? Once you get them empty handed with the first wheel effect, this also prevents them from ever drawing an extra card. It also gives you a little redundancy in case Leovold is not on the field and it gives you another win condition in the form of Mill. It is slow, but you seem to want to play the control game and Chains helps really slow your opponents down, just like Leovold does.
It does prevent you from drawing extra cards, so I suppose that is somethng to think about.
I seem to be missing something, but how do you get infinite card draw with these 3 cards? I see the infinite mana with the first two cards, but how does Top give you infinite card draw? I am assuming another card or I am missing something really simple.
Does this affect the equiped craeuteres abiltys that reference it's Own Name like Permeating Mass?
No, for two reasons. One, it still has the name "Permeating Mass". Second, and most important, whenever a permanent refers to its own name, it really means "this object". So, even if the name of the card is not Permeating Mass (if it was being cloned by Sakashima the Impostor for example) the ability would still work fine.
I already run Imperial Recruiter due to the creatures it can tutor for and Recruiter of the Guard can tutor for all the same creatures plus it can also grab Kamahl, Pit Fighter. This list is actually pretty tight so making cuts is difficult. It came down to Livala, Keeper of Silence (since her ability isn't always relevant), Oreskos Explorer (as it doesn't really ramp and it is technically a 3 drop if I want to get lands), and Angel of Jubilation (the buff is nice, but it is rare to hit anything other than fetch lands in most matchups with her ability).
After a little deliberation, I decided that even though the two angels abilities came into play infrequently, they were still decent enough for inclusion. Oreskos, while letting me hit my land drops easier, just didn't do enough and I found myself not wanting to cast it in order to get more lands. Plus, with any other ramp, such as Knight of the White Orchid, I would never get a land off it.
Since it is coming down on turn 3 most of the time anyway, it felt better to swap it out for the new Recruiter. Worst case, I can just use the new recruiter to get a better ramp creature like Burnished Hart or Solemn Simulacrum.
I appreciate the suggestion, but Tooth and Nail is on a short list of cards I typically avoid. This deck isn't really set up to take advantage of it in a way that ends the game anyway and while I do have quite a few ways to force certain creatures into play, I don't like the idea of just tutoring for 2 cards and putting them into play. I know it isn't a huge distinction from what I am already doing, but it requires significantly less setup than what I am doing.
I don't plan on ever having a Tooth and Nail in any of my decks again.
It is a thing for all formats. No one starts off being the Monarch, but if someone becomes the Monarch for any reason, the game will always have a Monarch until the game ends.
I started to look through my list and other cards trying to figure out a way to add a little more card drawing or card filtering to the list. I came up with these cards:
Abundance and Pursuit of Knowledge look really good. Abundance isn't really card drawing, but it does help filter my draws so I don't get mana flooded or mana screwed. It hopefully gets me to my enchantments or enchantresses sooner.
When I do get my enchantresses out, I am finding that I am skipping draws anyway since I have so many cards in hand. Pursuit of Knowledge lets me store those skipped draws up for later.
Armistice looks like a decent mana sink but it is expensive. 10 mana and 6 life to opponents to draw two cards seems really overcosted. But, it does give me a way to draw cards when I don't have enchantresses yet. I am not going to include it yet, but it is in the back of my mind in case the other two just aren't good enough.
Looking through my current list, I find that Silent Sentinel and Fires of Yavimaya aren't very good in practice. Sentinel seems good because it can get my enchantments back, but at 7 mana and needing to attack, it never does as much as I want it to. Emeria Shepherd is just much better and even Sun Titan can get quite a few back.
Fires of Yavimaya seemed like a good idea. It gave all my tokens haste and let me alpha strike someone. But, most of the time the tokens were just 1/1's unless I could get Luminarch Ascension on line. The 4/4's that I could create was the only time haste was ever really relevant. I decided that for one card that took a bit to start making tokens anyway it wasn't worth trying to give all my creatures haste. Most of the time I can afford to wait a turn to let those couple extra angels attack.
Updates:
-Fires of Yavimaya
-Silent Sentinel
+Abundance
+Pursuit of Knowledge
Thanks for the explanation. Wallycaine got to it before you, but I appreciate the summary. I should have caught that much earlier when I was reading it over, but for some reason it just didn't click.
Each player will get one token for each Hold the Perimeter in Command Zones.
Very early in deckbuilding I concluded that red was not good enough to include. Black was awesome and I liked playing the deck as 4 color, but 3 color is the sweet spot for this type of deck. Others work fine as 5 color (Slivers for example) but I think with the mana requirements (many 4, 5, and 6 drops plus double color requirements) meant that it was nowhere near consistent enough with the mana base. And that is with rainbow lands and every dual.
Regarding Narset; that is a huge concern and is one reason I haven't built a non-broken version of her yet. The stigma with Narset is hard to overcome, but I think she can be one of the more fun generals if built to not combo out of nowhere. I think she might even run well as a "Chaos" general since her ability is fairly chaotic already and she has access to red for other chaos effects. And yes, unfortunately Kaalia has a reputation too so I totally understand not wanting to have another "degenerate" general at the helm of your Superfriends deck.
In either case, I think you can find some middle ground that gets you to where you want to be with this type of deck.
Another card I am going to give a try is Regal Behemoth. I think this card could be good to allow me to continue casting my stuff as needed to get a better control over the board. To make room for this, I have decided to cut Mindslicer. This is a card I have been moving away from anyway as it slows the game to a crawl. This deck can take advantage of it but it always felt bad to do.
Updates (I am including my initial cuts for Conspiracy cards so I document them):
-Corpse Augur
-Orzhov Basilica
-Mindslicer
+Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
+Recruiter of the Guard
+Regal Behemoth
This card seems like it should be a very good political card and it is hard for my opponents to get a choice that doesn't hurt them in some way. This is also a card that potentially gets rid of problematic indestructible creatures (such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope) if everyone votes to sacrifice (assuming the player with Avacyn has 3 or fewer creatures). Even if it is split, every opponent sacrifices 2 creatures and discards 2 cards. That seems pretty good for 6 mana.
The list as it currently is has these two cards that seem the easiest to cut: Disciple of Griselbrand and Soldevi Adnate. I happen to like the Adnate to help ramp if I need it and the life gain off Disciple isn't really relevant. It was mainly in here as a Sac outlet so my stuff didn't get exiled, but I don't think it is worth taking up a slot.
Updates:
-Disciple of Griselbrand
+Capital Punishment
Recruiter seems very good in this build. I have 18 targets in the deck and some, like Spike Weaver, Eternal Witness, and Reclamation Sage are toolbox options for when I need them. Realm Seekers gets me my utility lands and is a big beater or blocker if I need. Bane of Progress is also a really good target for Recruiter so I have found a spot for that too (I am not entirely sure why I wasn't playing it already).
Regal Behemoth is just another mana doubler plus a card draw as long as I remain the Monarch. I think I shouldn't have too much to worry about in regards to remaining the Monarch, so I think the mana "doubling" should be helpful.
Selvala is massive in this kind of deck. SHe is so good in basically any green deck and this deck is no different. She ramps further into a lot of the big threats and potentially gives me more draws. And, I should almost always have the biggest creature so my opponents won't draw too often from her.
Selvala's Stampede seemed like a fun card to help cheat in a couple creatures. I should always be able to hit at least 3 creatures (unless my hand is totally empty) so for 6 mana, this is pretty good.
Outside of Conspiracy, I am also adding Dryad Arbor as another target for Recruiter and I can get it off Karametra. If I have Soul of the Harvest on board, I can also draw an additional card off it.
As mentioned above, I am also adding Bane of Progress. This card is very good and can be tutored off Recruiter if I need to get rid of a bunch of troublesome Artifacts/Enchantments.
For my cuts, I took out these cards:
I am cutting a Forest sraight up for Dryad Arbor. Pretty straightforward.
Budoka Gardner is great to get an additional land and his ability when flipped is great. However, I have only ever flipped it once and, while pretty good, I don't think the token is as good as I originally thought it would be. The best thing I ever did with it was sacrifice it to Diamond Valley to gain a bunch of life.
Yavimaya Dryad, Yavimaya Elder, and Kor Cartographer are all decent, but with Selvala and her Stampede, they become less worthwhile. Selvala straight up replaces one of them and Stampede doesn't want to hit any of them. Since Karametra is main source of ramp in this deck, having these cards to ramp (and Elder doesn't even really ramp) are not worth keeping in over the new cards. Kor Cartographer always felt too slow in this deck anyway. The addition of Recruiter of the Guard into Drayd Arbor (if I need it) also somewhat negates losing these cards. Also, while Drayd Arbor is a terrible creature to hit off Stampede, it is the easiest to get out of the way.
Garruk, Primal Hunter is probably the most difficult cut. His ultimate works great with Karametra and his minus keeps my hand full. However, he doesn't have as much sunergy with the rest as I would like. I never count on a planeswalker's ultimate (and I don't think I have ever had his go off) and the loss of card drawing is mitigated with Selvala's card drawing and draing cards from being the Monarch. Garruk's is most definitely better than either of those individually, but with both of them combined I think I can afford to cut him for now. If Regal Behemoth (the card I the most unsure about adding) ends up not working out, Garruk might find his way back in.
So:
-Budoka Gardner
-Yavimaya Dryad
-Yavimaya Elder
-Garruk, Primal Hunter
-Kor Cartographer
-Forest
+Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
+Selvala's Stampede
+Recruiter of the Guard
+Regal Behemoth
+Bane of Progress
+Dryad Arbor
See, I knew it was something simple
There are obviously outs to it, but there are so many ways to just end the game that once you cut off your opponents from drawing, you should be able to win wihout too much hassle.
Have you considered Chains of Mephistopheles? Once you get them empty handed with the first wheel effect, this also prevents them from ever drawing an extra card. It also gives you a little redundancy in case Leovold is not on the field and it gives you another win condition in the form of Mill. It is slow, but you seem to want to play the control game and Chains helps really slow your opponents down, just like Leovold does.
It does prevent you from drawing extra cards, so I suppose that is somethng to think about.
I did have one question though:
I seem to be missing something, but how do you get infinite card draw with these 3 cards? I see the infinite mana with the first two cards, but how does Top give you infinite card draw? I am assuming another card or I am missing something really simple.
I already run Imperial Recruiter due to the creatures it can tutor for and Recruiter of the Guard can tutor for all the same creatures plus it can also grab Kamahl, Pit Fighter. This list is actually pretty tight so making cuts is difficult. It came down to Livala, Keeper of Silence (since her ability isn't always relevant), Oreskos Explorer (as it doesn't really ramp and it is technically a 3 drop if I want to get lands), and Angel of Jubilation (the buff is nice, but it is rare to hit anything other than fetch lands in most matchups with her ability).
After a little deliberation, I decided that even though the two angels abilities came into play infrequently, they were still decent enough for inclusion. Oreskos, while letting me hit my land drops easier, just didn't do enough and I found myself not wanting to cast it in order to get more lands. Plus, with any other ramp, such as Knight of the White Orchid, I would never get a land off it.
Since it is coming down on turn 3 most of the time anyway, it felt better to swap it out for the new Recruiter. Worst case, I can just use the new recruiter to get a better ramp creature like Burnished Hart or Solemn Simulacrum.
So:
-Oreskos Explorer
+Recruiter of the Guard
I don't plan on ever having a Tooth and Nail in any of my decks again.