Quote from MorrainTheCorruptorYou know the funny thing is after I posted this I looked at the card again, went crap I did read the rules wrong! I was thoughtless when I read this (ergo didn't realize complete rules of rituals). Oh well accidents happen! What are your thoughts on Tormented Soul?
It's an unplayable card. There's no 2 ways about it really. First of all, it's important not to think of this as something that you'll always draw on turn 1. Even if it were, at a 20 tun clock per player, it's not exactly impressive. Still, the card becomes exponentially worse for every turn that passes. Like, you draw this on turn 5 and you 100% ripped something worse than any land or any spell in your deck (castable or not). As a standalone spell it's just not powerful enough to significantly affect the board and that's why I would never field it myself.
Now, I get what it "can" do. If you throw a Loxodon Warhammer on it, hey, things are looking up! I get that, and I get that some % of the time you can make this card a "something." The problem is that the card is horrible in every instance where you can't beef it up. I have the choice of playing good creatures such as Vampire Nighthawk who I can beef up with good equipment to make it better. I'm fine with that because I know that my Nighthawk is still good even if it gets 0 support. What I don't like is pairing an extremely bad card with a few good ones. Even if you'll combo them together some % of the time, in every instance where you don't you're basically down a card for no good reason. Every card in your decks should matter, and this just isn't ever going to be one of those.
I do not like it and I would never recommend playing it.
It might not be what you're looking for but I've toyed with a "4 color" version of this deck that abuse Obzedat, Ghost Council and Darigaaz Reincarnated alongside recursion such as Footsteps of the Goryo. I assume that people can piece together how the deck works (recur creatures that don't really die at EOT) and once you assemble Obzedat + Henge you're suddenly drawing a ton of cards while smacking people for (at least) 8 damage each circuit. Another way to build it is with Tectonic Hellion which is a card that I've thoroughly enjoyed building around. You basically go:
Turn 1 Entomb/Faithless Looting and bin Tectonic Hellion.
Turn 2 Exhume/Animate Dead and attack to take people back to 1 land. Chrome Mox/Mox Diamond help. Going last is ideal.
Turn 3 The Great Henge and keep attacking.
Everyone is locked at 2 lands tops but you have The Great Henge and Chrome Mox/Mox Diamond for mana which gives you a huge advantage over them. It leads to fun and interesting games of Magic where everyone laughs and has a good time. No salt whatsoever.
Even though it's not a creature I want to point out that Roots of Life basically reads "you can't die to damage" if people are on the Blue or Black train. Especially if people have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoths to fuel their Cabal Coffers or whatever; I've seen life totals soar past 200 since you're often gaining ~20 per circuit once the midgame hits. It completely kills their Exsanguinates and Gray Merchant of Asphodels and Black sucks at killing Enchantments. Mire in Misery doesn't even work unless they pair it with a mass removal spell first and even then you just bin your Wild Growth with a smile on your face. I know that it's not budget-friendly but I'll actually play 2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in these decks even if I don't have any Black cards. It's such a stupidly obscene quantity of life that it's well worth adding the "colorless" land.
Nah I wouldn't consider playing that one in MP. It doesn't scale in a meaningful way and I don't want cheap, aggressive threats in my decks. Much like Dread Shade it doesn't have a big enough impact on the game to warrant a deckslot. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing them if they had a playset lying around from their Standard deck but these aren't the types of cards that interest me. I typically only want 4-8 one drops in my deck (excluding Defile, that one doesn't count) total and those slots are too hotly contested by Myriad Landscape, Dark Ritual, Bloodchief Ascension, Thrull Parasite, Gonti's Machinations, etc. Heck, it's so hard to justify running anything over Dark Ritual which can power out an Ayara or Arena on turn 1 thus setting you up to succeed. It's cheap, easy to acquire, iconic, feels good to play with, on and on and on. Why much around with 1/2s for 1 when you can jam an Phyrexian Arena instead?
Realistically every non-Cabal Stronghold version of the deck should be playing 1-2 copies of Urborg because it's such an amazing card in general. It does so much and asks so little. I've never needed an excuse to play them lol.
Defile is amazing. It's one of the few spot removal spells that you can feel good about playing as a 2-4 of even in MP. It's definitely our version of Swords to Plowshares.
Nope, 20 or 25 life too. You're correct that he needs a dedicated shell but it's all cards that we're running regardless. Gonti's Machinations, Bloodchief Ascension, Thrull Parasite, Gifted Aetherborn, Basilica Screecher, Exsanguinate, Crypt Ghast, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, do I need to twist anyone's arm to convince them to play with these? Also, for protection you get to run Supernatural Stamina/Kaya's Ghostform if you want and it's not like those cards are bad in Gray Merchant of Asphodel decks either.
Throne of Eldraine
Ayara, First of Locthwain: extremely powerful drain + card advantage engine. One of the best things to Dark Ritual on turn 1. Staple 3-of.
Cauldron Familiar: fun combo with Witch's Oven, Zulaport Cutthroat and Ayara, First of Locthwain.
The Cauldron of Eternity: slow, inconsistent and terrible. Avoid.
Foulmire Knight: the best Typhoid Rats variant ever printed which can be useful in aggro-heavy metas. Very low power-level though.
Murderous Rider: marginal removal and marginal body makes for a marginal card. Playable but unexciting.
Rankle, Master of Pranks: stellar for Stax builds that include things like Dreadhorde Invasion, Ophiomancer and/or Chittering Witch.
Revenge of Ravens: utterly destroys aggro/token decks but completely useless vs midrange, ramp, combo, control, etc. Meta-specific.
Smitten Swordmaster: fantastic in Knight-heavy builds that include Lucky Clover. Tremendously powerful drain spell.
Syr Konrad, the Grim: extremely powerful drain finisher.
Chittering Witch: decent in Stax builds that include things like Rankle, Braids, Cabal Minion, Magus of the Abyss, etc.
Castle Locthwain: staple 4-of card advantage engine. Virtually all of my non-Cabal Stronghold builds play 4. Card is utterly insane.
Witch's Cottage: marginal recursion effect that excels in fetchland builds. There's way better things to be dong with these slots though.
Commander 2019
Mire in Misery: solid creature removal spell that occasionally hits an Enchantment or two. Worse than Liliana's Triumph in my experience.
K'rrick, Son of Yawgmoth: utterly bonkers mana engine. Easily one of the best things to be casting on turn 4 or Dark Ritualing on turn 2. My favorite curve is turn 1 Gonti's Machinations/Thrull Parasite (or any other spell really), turn 2 Dark Ritual + K'rrick, Son of Yawgmoth, turn 3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Crypt Ghast also works and I'll typically play those alongside K'rrick to ensure that I always have an oppressive ramp spell in play on turn 2/4.
Core Set 2020
Cavalier of Night: much like Murderous Rider this card is "fine" but nothing special in MP.
Dread Presence: reasonable card advantage/removal engine but too vulnerable to removal for my blood. Good in removal-light metas.
Leyline of the Void: utterly oppressive graveyard-hate spell that boasts immense synergy with Nykthos and Gary. Good time to pick them up on the cheap.
Vilis, Broker of Blood: impressive finisher for ramp builds that include things like Cabal Stronghold and/or Cabal Coffers.
Yarok's Fenlurker: staple 4-of. 2 black pips, global effect, good mana sink, you couldn't ask for a better 2 drop.
Field of the Dead: I love this card but I'd rather assemble Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or whatever.
Modern Horizons
Defile: staple 4-of. It's by far and away your best option for spot removal.
Endling: much like Dread Shade this card isn't even good monoblack devotion. Not enough impact on the game.
Mind Rake: staple 4-of in Waste Not Devotion decks.
Plague Engineer: amazing 1-2 of in any Black deck. It doesn't even matter if people play tribal; this card always seems to over-perform regardless.
Rank Officer: marginal/budget-minded anti-aggro card that also doubles as a drain finisher.
Sling-Gang Lieutenant: same idea; decent anti-aggro/budget card. Unfortunately this is now outclassed by Chittering Witch.
Undead Augur: staple 4-of for Zombie Devotion. Think Plague Belcher, Grave Defiler, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Rot Hulk.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: tremendously powerful value engine for builds that include things like Ophiomancer and Chittering Witch.
Barren Moor: good card but outclassed by alternatives such as Cabal Stronghold, Castle Locthwain, etc.
War of the Spark
Bolas's Citadel: utterly insane card advantage + drain engine. Shines brightest in extort builds but playable in anything with Gary.
Command the Dreadhorde: another extremely powerful 6 drop finisher that abuses the mass lifegain present in Gary decks.
Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage: too weak to make the cut in "serious" builds but a fun inclusion in casual discard decks.
Dreadhorde Invasion: fantastic engine for builds that include things like Ayara, First of Locthwain and Rankle, Master of Pranks.
The Elderspell: bonkers finisher for PW-heavy builds. 2 card combo with Liliana, the Last Hope and Liliana, Dreadhorde General.
God-Eternal Bontu: ridonkulous finisher for the Dreadhorde Invasion, Ophiomancer, Chittering Witch, Grave Pact, etc. Stax builds.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General: this set has a million 6 drops but they're all busted so I can't complain. Get a JPN alt art if possible, they're magnificent.
Liliana's Triumph: Black's best 2 CMC removal spell. I always have 4 at the ready in case I want to jam some additional interaction into my lists.
Massacre Girl: powerful mass removal spell that often makes the cut as a 2-of. Easily recurrable which is incredibly useful.
Nice try Netdecker. You people sicken me.
On an unrelated note Kenrith's Transformation is an extremely powerful card and I've been loving it in EDH. It's worse in MP since it doesn't have Commanders to neuter but "killing" a creature and drawing a card is a Hell of a rate at 2 CMC. Oko has also been insane in EDH for the same reasons but Kenrith's Transformation is a legitimate removal spell in Green.
Once Henge hits the table you're already happy. Now you're drawing 3+ cards per turn while constantly slamming bombs. They have removal? You don't care! Your cards already replaced themselves twice over so even if they Wrath your board away you can simply refill both it and your hand every turn until they crack. I really like Wild Growth in these decks because even lategame they're lands that you can play any number of copies of each turn which is relevant when you're double cantripping off of your threats. Even without untappers they're mana neutral and once you have 2+ of them on a land that you can untap then suddenly they're all mana positive. Normally that wouldn't matter much because you run of threats too quickly for this type of thing to matter but that's where Kiora + Henge kick things into overdrive. Every fatty starts double or triple cantripping and pretty soon you're flooding the board with 18 mana worth of threats every turn of every game.
Oh trust me when I say that I believe you. I'm also Canadian (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and I also had to stop shopping at CK ever since they started declaring the full value of your package. We don't get free shipping unless it's for $100.00+ USD singles orders. Currently the fees on a $100.00 $USD order are around $20.00 which, when combined with the cost of shipping cards back to them, kills any reasonable profit-seeking opportunities for us Canuks. I'm posting this for the Americans lol.
Miniature Market was my other go-to since they used to have 99 cent shipping and the best prices. Then they killed the 99 cent shipping for Canadians about a month ago.
Now I'm sad because I lost all of my good outlets :(. Currently I'm buylisting to Starcitygames.com but that's only because my specs tend to line-up well with their sales. I went HARD on Paradoxical Outcome at 75 cents and now that's it's Buylisting for $2.00 (+ store credit bonus) it's an easy triple-up. I'm just waiting for my main Pioneer spec to speak before selling out of the format save for the deck that I want to play. The prices in that format are going to crash and burn and I feel bad for the people who jumped on overpriced crap like Deathrite Shaman. 100% sell into the hype!
With that in mind I have no idea what people are thinking with some of these prices. I've already snagged playsets of cards like Castle Locthwain, Wishclaw Talisman, Ayara, First of Locthwain and The Cauldron of Eternity for under $10.00 per. In fact, most of my Cauldrons were around 6. Let that sink in. Regular art The Cauldron of Eternity is selling for $3.00 and people are giving away a version that 100x more rare for a 100% increase in price. It's utter lunacy. Castle Locthwain in particular I've been grabbing as many copies as I can because it's going to see play in Standard, EDH and Pioneer and in like 1 month everyone is going to realize that the market is already dry and people were selling the ultra-limited version for $9.99 alongside the regular copies for $1.99. 5x the price might sound like a lot but it's legitimately peanuts compared to how scarce the supply of these Extended arts actually are. And to anyone who doesn't believe me, look no further than my first post where I said "Fabled Passage is a good buy" and now it's bought-out from the market entirely and nonfoil extended arts are going for like $40.00. There's no supply to depress that so that is new low for that card and it's only going to continue to rise. It truly boggles my mind that people don't think that the exact same thing is going to happen to cards like Castle Locthwain, Castle Garenbrig, Gilded Goose, Oko, Thief of Crowns, The Great Henge and every other multiformat staple.
Lastly, I'll stress that Faeburrow Elder currently has a 22% play rate in EDH (22% of all newly posted that could include the card do include it) so the window for the Extended arts is going to close sooner rather than later. People are going to look back at this post and laugh when they realize that copies were selling in the $10.00 range. The only reason why I'm not grabbing them all myself is because I don't have infinite funds lying around and I've already bet the farm on Castle Locthwain. So we can look back at this a few weeks/a month from now and see how I'm doing with that investment.
They all work well with Agent of Treachery too :).
Nope, but you still should :). Your curve isn't outrageous by any means but you're still going to lose to manascrew moreso than anything else. As long as you cast your spells reasonably on-curve you'll probably do just fine so anything that gives you a boost in the early game seems ideal.
No for sure, the card basically never attacks or blocks in these shells. It's only there to draw cards and produce mana. Lovestruck Beast seems like a fantastic addition though since it's a card that actually blocks well even if it can't do much attacking. Still, I do want to point out that turn 1 Wild Growth, turn 2 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner + Lupine Prototype, turn 3 The Great Henge is a real curve and Lovestruck Beast can't enable that at 3 CMC. Turn 2 Lupine Prototype, turn 3 Invigorate + The Great Henge also works for what it's worth
HOLY COW SHE'S 40? Geez. Still, you have to admit that it would be a ton of fun to curve Rotting Regisaur into God-Eternal Rhonas and then tapping her for 14 mana lol.
I should probably stress that the window to buy cheap Faeburrow Elders is going to close sooner rather than later so if you wanted to snag ~20 for buylist/trade fodder you don't have much longer. People are going to realize that Bloom Tender is a $50.00 card and look to cash in on that down the road. Mirrormade is also starting to slowly rise so if you can still find them in the $1.00 range you're looking at a free triple-up within the year and an easy $5.00 staple within 2-3 years. $20.00 today for $100.00 in 3 years is a solid ROI assuming that you can live without it :P.
Next, I want to bring attention to Return of the Wildspeaker. It can comfortably be acquired for as low as 25 cents as is being played in close to 10% of newly posted Green decks. (400/4000 total since its release). You can probably buylist 50 copies of these at $1.00 each to Cardkingdom within the year which will give you $65.00 in store credit at the cost of $12.50 + shipping (both ways). And it only gets better if you take advantage of promos. You won't be making money hand-over-fist with these but I have my 50 that I'm going to sit on and sell back because $40.00 is going to snag me a couple of Recurring Nightmares or whatever and I'm cool with functionally buying them for $10.00 a pop after shipping.
Lastly, Chainer, Nightmare Adept here https://www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/commander-2019/chainer-nightmare-adept-foil looks like free money to me. The card is selling on TCG for around 2.50 based on this and this so buying copies for $1.00 seems like a no-brainer. Even if the card somehow manages to bottom-out at the $2.00 pricepoint you're still going to be able to sell them back to card kingdom for 2-3x the value in like 6 months. And that's your worst-case scenario. Smart money is buy them out, wait for 2 years and sell them back for 5-6x the profit. So if you want a super easy cart buy you 8 copies of Chainer, your 8x Return of the Wildspeaker and then whatever else you need to hit the $25.00 minimum for free shipping. Something like:
Shopping Cart
(21 items)
Subtotal: $25.03 USD
View Cart | Checkout
Chainer, Nightmare Adept
8 Commander 2019 - Foil (NM) 0.99
Faeburrow Elder
3 Throne of Eldraine (NM) 1.29
1 Throne of Eldraine Variants - Extended Art (NM) 10.99
Midnight Clock
1 Throne of Eldraine (NM) 0.25
Return of the Wildspeaker
8 Throne of Eldraine (NM) 0.25
Or:
Shopping Cart
(18 items)
Subtotal: $25.90 USD
View Cart | Checkout
Chainer, Nightmare Adept
8 Commander 2019 - Foil (NM) 0.99
Mirrormade
2 Throne of Eldraine Variants - Extended Art (NM) 7.99
Return of the Wildspeaker
8 Throne of Eldraine (NM) 0.25
These kinds of carts are free money. Extended Arts of EDH staples are going to be money money money a few years from now and while it's too late for Fabled Passage you can still grab things like Faeburrow Elder and Mirrormade on the cheap. I would be completely and utterly shocked if I couldn't ship this exact same cart back to Card Kingdom in a year for at least twice what I paid.
Other cards that you can use to fill carts to $25.00 include Talisman of Conviction, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Creativity and Generous Gift. Nongreen Talismans are free money since MH1 has basically bottomed out at this point and once the singletons are no longer tied to the price of the booster box (1-2 more months) everything that's overpowered is going to start rising steadily.