How about Vedalken Orrery? while not a protective card in the strictest sense, playing at instant speed means being able to wait out the perfect moment when interruption is hardest.
On the flipside, consider Conqueror's Flail's protection as well.
Edit: In the same vein (protecting a turn or the game plan, not specifically the commander) Nightcreep could work as protection as well
Lethal Vapors, if you want to tax their resources in a completely different way.
Kambal punishes opponents for playing noncreature spells, so i would focus on stuff that forces them to commit to casting those said spells. The above card does that in a very unique way. I think so far i had one player ever skip their turn to get it off the battlefield.
Naturally, you'd want Kambal down before casting Lethal Vapors.
On a more general note, how do you plan on winning? Kambal will get you part of the way, but is a reactive card. Most of the stuff so far seems to be reactive. While not generally unusable, this will put you into a position where you are dependent on your opponents to let you win the game by performing their actions instead of being able to control the game flow yourself.
Some ideas i had, off the top of my head:
- Deeper into control, with some hard-to-interact wincons to eventually finish them off
--> Could be reanimating their stuff. Grave Betrayal and Debtors' Knell plus some mill & kill
--> Direct life manipulation? Sorin Markov, Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Blood, Kokusho, the Evening Star. Veers into Combo
- Aristocrats: Usually better done with something like Teysa Karlov as your commander, but i mention it since you have some of the pieces (Blood Artist and their friends) already included
Clearly this is quite incomplete, just wanted to get you on the way of not just thinking about 'how do i play' but 'how do i win'
Curse of Shared Pain1WB Enchantment - Aura Curse (U)
Enchant Player
Whenever the controller would take damage from a source that the enchanted player controls, the enchanted player is dealt that much damage as well from the same source.
Multiple notes:
The rules text as-is does not work in magic lingo. Try this instead:
Whenever a source enchanted player controls deals damage to you, it deals that much damage to enchanted player.
There is a weird interaction with this card if you manage to donate it to enchanted player. At that point, if they manage to deal any damage to themselves, they will loop themselves to death (Any other damage dealt will have no effect). Not an issue, just a bit weird. If that is not intended, you could change it to 'enchant opponent'
Curse with Immortality2WBG Legendary Enchantment - Aura Curse (MR)
Enchant Player
The enchanted player can't lose the game and they can't win the game.
As long as the enchanted player hasn't lost the game, Curse with Immortality has indestructible and shroud.
I don't see how this works. So as long as no-one manages to get you to sacrifice this enchantment, no-one can win the game? (Because enchanted player can't lose)
The second ability also does not work, since the first will remove any triggering instance for the second.
Is the intent here to make this curse nigh-unremovable until enchanted player is in a losing state?
In that case, try this wording instead:
Curse with Immortality2WBG Legendary Enchantment - Aura Curse (MR)
Enchant Player
Indestructible, Shroud
Enchanted player can't win the game.
Whenever enchanted player would lose the game, instead Curse with Immortality loses Indestructible and Shroud and enchanted player does not lose the game.
Cast Necromancer, trigger Inalla, trigger Necromancer, sacrifice Necromancer to Altar to make (2), resolve Necromancer trigger, target Necromancer in the yard to bring it back, trigger Inalla, trigger Necromancer, sacrifice Necromancer to Altar to make (2)...............
Have an arbitrarily large amount of mana and Inalla triggers on the stack, create an arbitrarily large amount of 3/2 haste creatures.
Not 100% sure if the Necromancer can return itself back to play, if I sacrifice him in response to his trigger, but I can, right?
Sorry if someone else already posted this obvious synergy.
Triggers, just like spells, require you to announce the target when the trigger goes on the stack.
You can never target the Bloodline Necromancer with its own ability, since its still on the battlefield when the ability goes on the stack.
What you can do is this:
1. Bloodline Necromancer enters the battlefield, put its trigger on the stack to return whatever (or nothing).
2. sacrifice Bloodline Necromancer to Ashnod's Altar
3. Inalla, Archmage Ritualist's triggered ability resolves. Pay the cost. Put the token into play. Target your dead Bloodline Necromancer with its trigger.
4. return to 1.
So the combo works, but not quite like you explained.
Sadly, due to looking into it closely, it will not loop. Due to state based effects, as soon as the creature with a -1/-1 counter dies, blowfly will trigger again. So, say we have a 1/1 and a token. Put the counter on the 1/1 and trigger nest. Once state based effects happen, the creature dies putting blowfly on the stack. Now, due to how the stack works, blowfly will go on the top of the stack. Once again, it will put the counter on your token you had, triggering nest. SBE happen and the token dies. Blowfly will trigger. Once blowfly has no more targets or doesnt kill anything, the number of nest triggers will happen. If something is already on the stack, unfortunately, you cant put a new effect below it unless something specifically allows it. I was hoping it worked, too. But, upon further inspection, it doesnt do what we had hoped.
Not quite.
After you put a -1/-1 counter on a 1/1, state based actions are checked before triggers are put on the stack. There's a creature with 0 toughness in play, so it goes to the graveyard. Now, triggers are put on the stack. There are two triggers waiting, one from Blowfly Infestation and one from Nest of Scarabs. Since you control both triggers, you may stack them any way you want. Having the trigger from Nest of Scarabsresolve first is what this loop requires.
Of course, it also requires another creature around as those triggers are put on the stack, since that's when we choose targets for Blowfly Infestation.
Loop:
When you resolve an effect that puts a -1/-1 counter on any of your creatures, it begins.
1. State based actions are checked, the creature goes to the graveyard. We now have one creature left.
2. Triggers are put on the stack. Blowfly Infestation goes first, targeting our remaining creature. Then Nest of Scarabs, which has no targets.
3. Nest of Scarabs resolves. We now have two creatures.
4. Blowfly Infestation resolves. Start again at 1.
If you want to break the loop, simply reverse the trigger resolution. Blowfly Infestation resolves first, killing the last token, retriggering immediately both itself and Nest of Scarabs. However, since it has no targets anymore, the Infestation trigger cannot actually be put on the stack and the loop ends.
You now have:
2 1/1 tokens.
What a I find really annoying was I asked someone "Are you holding 7 cards?" He says yes. Then I thoughtseize him and he reveals 8. The judge says it was an honest mistake... (this was turn 1)
Even if it is just an honest mistake, there is an infraction for misrepresenting game information. It's called a Communications Policy Violation and carries the penalty of a Warning.
Warnings are there to remind players to play more carefully, because continuing on the 'sloppy' path might result in a game loss down the line.
As usual:
When in doubt, call a judge, that's what we're there for.
As for the OP's question/statement (not quite clear): Cheating is, and always will be, heavily punished. However, not everything that looks fishy actually is.
If you suspect foul play, call a judge and ask them to watch the match. (If you can prove foul play, of course also call a judge)
There are no specific hard rules on how to arrange your cards outside of feature matches, but those are a good guideline since they are designed to keep the game clear and grokkable to spectators. In many cases it is enough to just politely ask your opponent to rearrange their cards in a way that makes them clearer to distinguish.
And yes, you are absolutely allowed to ask for them to count out the cards from a Collected Company resolution for you to verify. Of course, they can refuse, but that would look super fishy! Time to call a judge again!
I would suggest cutting Ghirapur Orrery. It's a 4 CMC card that does not immediately affect the board (I don't count sometimes getting an extra landfall trigger out of it), which is a bad place to be in an aggressive strategy.
I find Undergrowth Champion to be pretty underwhelming. A 2/2 for 3 isn't great to start with, and you probably won't want to play it before turn 4 to be able to immediately give it a protective shield. Even then, it dies to any kind of Murder variant, will probably never get out of rech of Grasp of Darkness.
Without fetchlands, i find Scythe Leopard to be quite underwhelming.
I'd try to replace those cards with other creatures and direct damage spells in the 2 to 3 CMC range. With 23 Lands you can't actually guarantee to see 4 lands for a while, so you ave to make sure to get to cast an impactful spell each turn regardless. Whick means getting the curve down.
You could try out Incendiary Flow. While it is sorcery speed, it does handle any cards capable of recursion as well as goes to the dome.
Renegate Freighter might be a budget suggestion to get into vehicles: Dealing 5 for 3 is pretty good and it gives your Makindi Sliderunners something to do after the land dries up and your opponent has sufficient blockers.
Try to concentrate on your core strategy. 'Death by a thousand papercuts' strategies take some time to execute and can't really afford to dilute that strategy. As such, cards like Consulate Skygate should go, since they do not affect your proactive strategy.
Speaking of Murder, if you're red/black and sometimes have an artifact in play, replace them with Unlicensed Disintegration for extra value. Dealing thre eto an opponent is a nice upside and the colored mana cost will probably be easier for this deck. It also helps with your weakness against planeswalkers since you can redirect it to them.
Spireside Infiltrator? More expensive than the lookout, but can actually attack for a bit
These are all keeping in mind your budget theme, so no rares and mythics. If you went into that, i'd look into getting the red/black dual lands from Zendikar, maybe a Geier Reach Sanitarium, and Smuggler's Copter to replace the Sky Skiff.
I do not quite understand what your question is since you only make a statement. Thus I will explain what happens with these two cards. Wood Elves is a creature card and thus eligible for Panharmonicon's triggered ability.
The game sees a triggered ability that needs to be put onto the stack and does so.
Since the triggered ability satisfies Panharmonicon's ability, an additional copy of that triggered ability is put onto the stack
Players get priority
The first iteration of Wood Elves' triggered ability resolves.
Players get priority
The second iteration of Wood Elves' triggered ability resolves.
Net result: If for the sake of arument, you started with nothing but Panharmonicon in play, at the end of this sequence you will have one Panharmicon, one Wood Elves and two Forests on the battlefield.
Edit: My first explanation was wrong. Panharmonicon's ability is not a trigger. It modifies the card that generates the trigger itself. The wrong explanation has been removed to avoid confusion
"Nontoken", not "noncreature". I do remember Clues. And actually before them there was Gold, and the equipment from the first Nahiri.
I was saying if we will never "create" a nontoken permanent, why not take out the word "token" from there? It'll need to stay in the reminder text for now, of course, but eventually it can be taken out, no?
'Token' is basically a qualifier for the permanent, in that it is the opposite to 'card'. Something can be a creature token, or it can be a creature card, but not a creature token card.
You assume that because you understand how it works, everybody else does too. However, Magic survives because it has a constant influx of new players, who by definition have a shaky grasp of the rules. Adding an extra word to clarify what your card means is a relatively small price to pay.
In other words: I highly doubt the word 'token' will be cut from the wording, even if we will never see a card that lets us create a nontoken permanent (which is basically a certainty, because those cards would have to come from sowehere. 'Create' implies making something that did not exist before. With an actual card, it's just a zone change, so you'd 'put it onto the battlefield from' wherever it was before, not create it).
Of course, all of this goes more into philosophy of templating, not really game rules. Might be a good question for Matt Tabak though.
"You get ***(three Energy counters), then you may pay any amount of *"
Effects happen upon resolution, so before that you don't get the energy.
In other words, you could not pay the energy before the spell resolves because you don't have it yet.
The issue with Underhanded Designs + Panharmonicon is that the Designs have a mana cost for their first ability. If you copy the trigger with Panharmonicon, you still need to pay the cost for each trigger separately.
So to make this work, you need to mainly play 1- and 0-cost Artifacts. Don't know about you, but in that case i prefer the Aetherflux Reservoir + 4x Bone Saw + Paradoxical Outcome combo.
Of course, Underhanded Designs might slot into that for some additional lifegain: while the lifeloss is not actually important (50 damage should basically always suffice), the lifegain might be if you have a slow start. Panharmonicon on the other hand is a 4-cost artifact that would not do enough in that deck, so it'd probably not be included.
In the end, it's still all pretty janky combo stuff, but it's a start at least.
Scattering Maelstrom 4UW
Instant
If a creature would die this turn, instead exile it with X time counters on it, where X is that creature's converted mana cost. If that card doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend.
"I found Hans four miles down and three years later. The sandwich he snatched from me was still fresh" - Rufus, maelstrom survivor
On the flipside, consider Conqueror's Flail's protection as well.
Edit: In the same vein (protecting a turn or the game plan, not specifically the commander) Nightcreep could work as protection as well
Kambal punishes opponents for playing noncreature spells, so i would focus on stuff that forces them to commit to casting those said spells. The above card does that in a very unique way. I think so far i had one player ever skip their turn to get it off the battlefield.
Naturally, you'd want Kambal down before casting Lethal Vapors.
On a more general note, how do you plan on winning? Kambal will get you part of the way, but is a reactive card. Most of the stuff so far seems to be reactive. While not generally unusable, this will put you into a position where you are dependent on your opponents to let you win the game by performing their actions instead of being able to control the game flow yourself.
Some ideas i had, off the top of my head:
- Deeper into control, with some hard-to-interact wincons to eventually finish them off
--> Could be reanimating their stuff. Grave Betrayal and Debtors' Knell plus some mill & kill
--> Direct life manipulation? Sorin Markov, Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Blood, Kokusho, the Evening Star. Veers into Combo
- Aristocrats: Usually better done with something like Teysa Karlov as your commander, but i mention it since you have some of the pieces (Blood Artist and their friends) already included
Clearly this is quite incomplete, just wanted to get you on the way of not just thinking about 'how do i play' but 'how do i win'
Multiple notes:
I don't see how this works. So as long as no-one manages to get you to sacrifice this enchantment, no-one can win the game? (Because enchanted player can't lose)
The second ability also does not work, since the first will remove any triggering instance for the second.
Is the intent here to make this curse nigh-unremovable until enchanted player is in a losing state?
In that case, try this wording instead:
Legendary Enchantment - Aura Curse (MR)
Enchant Player
Indestructible, Shroud
Enchanted player can't win the game.
Whenever enchanted player would lose the game, instead Curse with Immortality loses Indestructible and Shroud and enchanted player does not lose the game.
Triggers, just like spells, require you to announce the target when the trigger goes on the stack.
You can never target the Bloodline Necromancer with its own ability, since its still on the battlefield when the ability goes on the stack.
What you can do is this:
1. Bloodline Necromancer enters the battlefield, put its trigger on the stack to return whatever (or nothing).
2. sacrifice Bloodline Necromancer to Ashnod's Altar
3. Inalla, Archmage Ritualist's triggered ability resolves. Pay the cost. Put the token into play. Target your dead Bloodline Necromancer with its trigger.
4. return to 1.
So the combo works, but not quite like you explained.
Not quite.
After you put a -1/-1 counter on a 1/1, state based actions are checked before triggers are put on the stack. There's a creature with 0 toughness in play, so it goes to the graveyard. Now, triggers are put on the stack. There are two triggers waiting, one from Blowfly Infestation and one from Nest of Scarabs. Since you control both triggers, you may stack them any way you want. Having the trigger from Nest of Scarabs resolve first is what this loop requires.
Of course, it also requires another creature around as those triggers are put on the stack, since that's when we choose targets for Blowfly Infestation.
So, prerequisites:
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Nest of Scarabs
2 1/1 creatures
1 effect that puts a -1/-1 counter on a creature
Loop:
When you resolve an effect that puts a -1/-1 counter on any of your creatures, it begins.
1. State based actions are checked, the creature goes to the graveyard. We now have one creature left.
2. Triggers are put on the stack. Blowfly Infestation goes first, targeting our remaining creature. Then Nest of Scarabs, which has no targets.
3. Nest of Scarabs resolves. We now have two creatures.
4. Blowfly Infestation resolves. Start again at 1.
If you want to break the loop, simply reverse the trigger resolution. Blowfly Infestation resolves first, killing the last token, retriggering immediately both itself and Nest of Scarabs. However, since it has no targets anymore, the Infestation trigger cannot actually be put on the stack and the loop ends.
You now have:
2 1/1 tokens.
The former is a replacement effect, the latter is a trigger.
Even if it is just an honest mistake, there is an infraction for misrepresenting game information. It's called a Communications Policy Violation and carries the penalty of a Warning.
Warnings are there to remind players to play more carefully, because continuing on the 'sloppy' path might result in a game loss down the line.
As usual:
When in doubt, call a judge, that's what we're there for.
As for the OP's question/statement (not quite clear): Cheating is, and always will be, heavily punished. However, not everything that looks fishy actually is.
If you suspect foul play, call a judge and ask them to watch the match. (If you can prove foul play, of course also call a judge)
There are no specific hard rules on how to arrange your cards outside of feature matches, but those are a good guideline since they are designed to keep the game clear and grokkable to spectators. In many cases it is enough to just politely ask your opponent to rearrange their cards in a way that makes them clearer to distinguish.
And yes, you are absolutely allowed to ask for them to count out the cards from a Collected Company resolution for you to verify. Of course, they can refuse, but that would look super fishy! Time to call a judge again!
I find Undergrowth Champion to be pretty underwhelming. A 2/2 for 3 isn't great to start with, and you probably won't want to play it before turn 4 to be able to immediately give it a protective shield. Even then, it dies to any kind of Murder variant, will probably never get out of rech of Grasp of Darkness.
Without fetchlands, i find Scythe Leopard to be quite underwhelming.
I'd try to replace those cards with other creatures and direct damage spells in the 2 to 3 CMC range. With 23 Lands you can't actually guarantee to see 4 lands for a while, so you ave to make sure to get to cast an impactful spell each turn regardless. Whick means getting the curve down.
You could try out Incendiary Flow. While it is sorcery speed, it does handle any cards capable of recursion as well as goes to the dome.
Renegate Freighter might be a budget suggestion to get into vehicles: Dealing 5 for 3 is pretty good and it gives your Makindi Sliderunners something to do after the land dries up and your opponent has sufficient blockers.
These are all keeping in mind your budget theme, so no rares and mythics. If you went into that, i'd look into getting the red/black dual lands from Zendikar, maybe a Geier Reach Sanitarium, and Smuggler's Copter to replace the Sky Skiff.
Wood Elves is a creature card and thus eligible for Panharmonicon's triggered ability.
The following will happen:
Net result: If for the sake of arument, you started with nothing but Panharmonicon in play, at the end of this sequence you will have one Panharmicon, one Wood Elves and two Forests on the battlefield.
Edit: My first explanation was wrong. Panharmonicon's ability is not a trigger. It modifies the card that generates the trigger itself. The wrong explanation has been removed to avoid confusion
'Token' is basically a qualifier for the permanent, in that it is the opposite to 'card'. Something can be a creature token, or it can be a creature card, but not a creature token card.
You assume that because you understand how it works, everybody else does too. However, Magic survives because it has a constant influx of new players, who by definition have a shaky grasp of the rules. Adding an extra word to clarify what your card means is a relatively small price to pay.
In other words: I highly doubt the word 'token' will be cut from the wording, even if we will never see a card that lets us create a nontoken permanent (which is basically a certainty, because those cards would have to come from sowehere. 'Create' implies making something that did not exist before. With an actual card, it's just a zone change, so you'd 'put it onto the battlefield from' wherever it was before, not create it).
Of course, all of this goes more into philosophy of templating, not really game rules. Might be a good question for Matt Tabak though.
"You get ***(three Energy counters), then you may pay any amount of *"
Effects happen upon resolution, so before that you don't get the energy.
In other words, you could not pay the energy before the spell resolves because you don't have it yet.
So to make this work, you need to mainly play 1- and 0-cost Artifacts. Don't know about you, but in that case i prefer the Aetherflux Reservoir + 4x Bone Saw + Paradoxical Outcome combo.
Of course, Underhanded Designs might slot into that for some additional lifegain: while the lifeloss is not actually important (50 damage should basically always suffice), the lifegain might be if you have a slow start. Panharmonicon on the other hand is a 4-cost artifact that would not do enough in that deck, so it'd probably not be included.
In the end, it's still all pretty janky combo stuff, but it's a start at least.
Scattering Maelstrom 4UW
Instant
If a creature would die this turn, instead exile it with X time counters on it, where X is that creature's converted mana cost. If that card doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend.
"I found Hans four miles down and three years later. The sandwich he snatched from me was still fresh" - Rufus, maelstrom survivor